


Strict Machine

by ActualBampot



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Older Woman/Younger Woman, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2020-10-14 06:02:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20595902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualBampot/pseuds/ActualBampot
Summary: After graduating from Beacon Academy, Ruby Rose set out into the big world with a Masters in Photography, and a whole lot of debt. After months of scraping by she learns the importance of small leaps of faith and how they can change her path forever, one spilled coffee at a time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fell out of me like gay, rainbow-coloured vomit. Let's see where it goes, in the meantime, enjoy!
> 
> P. S. Here's the playlist! Give it an ear:
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1PUzcjG4goJplejdi7rKND?si=e3GamXRoTsyAt2xo2Eklqw

Ruby wanted to tell her how pretty she was. She wanted to suck up her fear and approach her filled with all the buoyancy in the world to ask her name- because that’s what it would have taken. She wasn't convinced the response to her question would-even could sink in when she was so enamoured by the way her carmine lips licked around words like they had been written just to be spoken by her, and only by her.

It didn’t matter anyway, not when she already knew she’d tell her how beautiful her name was no matter what it turned out to be. 

She'd swept by Ruby with all the chill of an autumn afternoon clinging to her fitted woollen jacket, taking a seat two booths ahead of Ruby's and made up from head to toe in labels she only vaguely knew because Weiss insisted on schooling her in 'fashion' that wasn't oversized hand-me-down jumpers from Yang and gloves with more holes than she had fingers. 

Ruby’s palms were sweating. She’d spent half an hour scraping together sofa-lien for the spiced coffee in her hands, topped- of course- with a ludicrous tower of cream and sprinkles, yet hadn’t even noticed as most of it dripped down the sides to coat her fingers. It certainly wasn’t the most grown-up drink in the world.. And for some odd reason that suddenly that bothered her. 

“Coffee. Black.”

Her voice all but rolled into the air, an effortless drawl laden in velvet.

Ruby snapped into a scramble for napkins when the waitress side-eyed her with the most incredulous look as if she’d been- staring at her customer- crap. 

Sliding down against cheap pleather chairs she silently wished the booth would swallow her, fidgeting with her scrunched-up napkin like it was the most interesting thing in the world, like it would hide how her face was hot up to the tips of her ears. 

Thankfully the waitress didn’t take any further notice, scribbling the order down until Ruby watched the woman’s fingers, dipped in a dangerous shade of carmine, crook to motion her closer. She stretched to the waitresses ear, and from where Ruby sat she was gifted with the sight of dark curls tumbling away from the womans shoulder and the slender crane of her jaw that might as well have been sculpted perfection. 

Ruby’s hands were trembling when they thoughtlessly left her drink, reaching cautiously across the chair beside her for her Polaroid. Usually she opted for Vales concrete landscape, or the odd erratic pigeon long before she’d dare point her camera at a real person. Busy city people going blindly about their business made better stills for a zombie movie than a photograph.. 

None-the-less, the shutter clicked, thankfully quiet enough as to not draw attention but- 

Those lips slowly curled until glossy red parted around rows of perfect white teeth in a smile, and Ruby lost all accounts of consideration for decency when her finger pressed the shutter again. The first Polaroid, undeveloped, hit the table when forced out by the second, maybe she would have noticed had her heart not been hammering. 

She was definitely nothing like a zombie.

The angle of her jaw sloped higher, splitting into a chuckle at something the young waitress had said, sharp dimples forming at her cheeks and giving away telltale signs that Ruby definitely wasn’t old enough for this woman to be making her feel like she was running a fever. 

The server took her leave, and to Ruby's disappointment the head of perfect, dark waves turned to obscure the striking contrast of her pale skin. Ruby could practically feel blood pumping through her skin and beaming her cheeks, and while toying uselessly with the blank, undeveloped photos she made up her mind-

Bzzzzt! 

"EEP" Ruby practically shot out of her seat, knees thudding painfully on the underside of the table, and in a panic unceremoniously juggled her vibrating phone out of her pocket until she managed to press it to her ear. 

"H-Hello?" 

"Hey honey. We're a bit delayed. Vale is crazy at the weekend huh?!" 

"Dad- Hey- Wait why are coming-"

Weekend. It was Sunday. Oh no- "I mean- Why are you coming into Vale? I thought I was meeting you guys there?" -at mom's. 

"Hold on honey the lights just changed. Talk to Yang for a sec!" 

Ruby didn't hold on for anything, surging out of her chair like there were springs in her legs and fire under her ass. Phone mushed between shoulder and cheek her arms were free to scoop up the contents of the table, at the same time snatching her rucksack. 

"Rubes! I didn't know you were heading back to Patch? Nice surprise." 

"Uhhhhh.. Well you know- I kept meaning to visit and- Mom's anniversary was coming up so - You know I'm SO sure I told Dad-" 

There was silence on Yangs end while Ruby squeaked in a struggle to inch her way out of the booth. Horrible, disconcerting silence. 

"You forgot didn't you?"

Her shoelace snagged on the table leg, balance threatening to sway out of control. 

"Yang Xiao Long-" On one leg, hopping and tugging her foot back Ruby grabbed her mostly-full coffee mug. "Are you suggesting that in 19 years I'd ever miss-" 

It came free, whipping her around with nothing less than vicious inertia before she collided with someone's shoulder, hard. It must have looked like an eruption to any onlooker as Ruby's phone flew out from between her neck, followed immediately by her Polaroid, rucksack, and last but not least the majority of the contents in her coffee cup. 

She froze. Oh- "-my god, oh my god, crap I-" 

On the floor in seconds Ruby was flustering to grab her belongings and her phone- all the pieces of it. Her hands dragged down both cheeks, making an ungodly sobbing sound; It was broken, useless, Yang knew right away that the day had slipped her mind, Dad was on his way to her apartment, and the last of her money to get there in some sense of reasonable time was now spilled across the floor and all over - 

“I daresay you should watch where you're going, dear."

Ruby blinked, looked up from the floor, and her eyes stretched saucer-wide first at the sight of black heels, liquid gloss edged with a sole of racey signature red, then up to the slender sculpt of calf clearly defined even beneath sheer gossamer- oh. 

She breathed in suddenly--stockings, with a lacy seam peeking out from where her pencil skirt had risen slightly as she crouched. 

Carmine nails that she'd spotted at a distance were reaching for Ruby's scattered belongings. 

"I can tell that making a casualty out of yourself is something you frequent in, the real death in this case is 100% silk-twill. " 

Ruby's head snapped up so hard it almost gave her whiplash "H-Huh?" 

A blaze was upon her, fire burning around a coal furnace that shouldn't have had any right to make her shiver the way it did, but Ruby couldn't look away from the cold, incredulous expression the woman from two booths down wore. 

They stood together, she on legs far more slender, long enough to place her at least a full head above Ruby who couldn't help but cower in on her shoulders when she spotted the very noticeable, very large coffee stain that had soaked dark grey into the lapels of the woman's shirt. 

"Oh-oh no I am so, so sorry I-I didn't realize you were right there my sister sounded angry on the phone and I guess I got so panicked because I forgot that I wasn't looking and it's totally my fault, of course I-I can pay for it-" 

Ruby couldn't stop her mouth from flapping in a panicked ramble when amber locked onto silver, licking Ruby from the top, down to the points of her toes and back again, her face going through a series of changes: it darkened in anger first, but as Ruby's rambling showed no signs of slowing it sunk into resignation. 

Bringing her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose she sighed in a way one would after realising they had stepped in gum. 

She held her hand up, fingers pinched together as if drawing a zipper. "Stop talking." 

"Ok." Ruby answered immediately. Stopping was a good idea. 

Ruby couldn't look away. Dark, thin eyebrows dipped between a narrow glare as if regarding her thoughtfully, chin poised high and the frown she wore pulled at small, tight creases gracing the corners of her lips.

It was impossible to tell from a distance just how frightening she was, or that she was quite possibly the most strikingly attractive woman Ruby had ever seen in her life. 

“Thirteen.” The announcement snapped Ruby out of her reverie, focusing up at the womans expectant gaze. 

“Huh.. O-Oh! Of course uh-” Her hands juggled her belongings, flying towards her pocket for her wallet before remembering that the last of her money was now.. splashed all over this woman, and she fumbled, embarrassed; “I d-don’t have thirteen lien on me right now but.. I can run to the nearest lien machine if you didn’t mind waiting-”

“-Hundred.”

“E-excuse me?”

“Thirteen hundred, darling. Or do they neglect to teach math as well as manners in school?” 

Ruby balked. This was a joke, right? She had to be joking, or she must have misheard. "T-t-thirteen h-hundred… Uh- I-I don't.." Ruby stared at the woman, and she stared right back. "... For a shirt?" she heard herself say. 

A perfect dark brow arched high, quirking the edge of the woman's lips a little but Ruby hesitated to call it anything resembling a smile- more like an amused sneer. 

"I-I could pay you back in parts!" Ruby chirped up nervously. "You know like, weekly or uh- monthly--maybe bi-monthly.."

"And by that time I'll have long expired and your debt will be invalid. How ingenious." Maybe it was her upbringing that leant to such shotgun responses, Ruby thought, or maybe she was convinced that the broken pieces of her phone might spontaneously combust, but the Woman's cynical tone took an almost cruel dip, setting her on edge. 

Regardless, her long and dainty fingers gingerly returned the parts one by one, until she came to a small square film. 

"W-wait!" Ruby suddenly cried, and even if the plead hadn't been completely feeble it was too late. "I-I can explain-"

She had to be dreaming, or hallucinating the entire encounter with this beautiful woman. But she wasn't; That cold, unreadable state on her face as she lifted Ruby’s polaroid to inspect was real, and this time it was with both brows rising almost to her hairline.

Instantly Ruby decided this wasn't a dream, it was her worst nightmare, Karma for letting mom's anniversary slip her mind and here she was with this woman smiling at-

Wait, smiling? 

No, the most attractive grin Ruby had ever seen, until she stood witness to a brusque and deep-seated chuckle growing and filling the air denser than smoke. The blinding white of her teeth, sharp and almost predatory crept into view from between a contrast of dark lips. 

She glanced past the Polaroid at Ruby who stood frozen, breathing in small stuttering patterns, voice trying to will words into existence but only able to manage a small, confused laugh. 

In the next second personal space between them evaporated, and Ruby found herself craning backwards as the Woman's impressive height loomed over her like a foreboding shadow. An inch further and they could have touched. 

Ruby could smell the faintest hints of jasmine layered beneath something rich and dark that made her feel dizzy. 

"Nice photograph." She whispered, voice a tangle of silk and cruelty, edged so deep that Ruby felt her spine tingle with heat. 

A deep breath exhaled hotly over her cheeks, and the woman dragged her gaze to drink Ruby in once more from head to toe, only this time she was sucking on her lower lip in thought. 

And then a moment later she was gone, brushing their arms together as she passed, electrifying the girl up one side. Ruby was given just enough time to watch as her Polaroid was pressed between skin and the patterned silk of the woman's open collar, tucked away over her breast. 

For a moment the girl couldn’t move, stricken and staring into empty space. It took far too long than it had any right to before she numbly willed herself towards the exit, trying to comprehend whether that woman had really just spoken to her, if she'd really just-

Standing at the cashier till Ruby could see her wearing a ghost of a smile on her lips. 

It was like her limbs had been pumped full of morphine, numb but giddy all the same and when she managed to push her way through the exit she was hit with exactly what she needed; brisk, sobering Autumn chill and-

Rain, great. 

*

"Wait! Waaaait!!" 

Rotten luck like this didn't just happen upon people, something had to give so Ruby decided she'd done something awful in a past life, that had to be it; Cheated on a test, or kicked a dog, or kicked the bus driver that showed no signs of stopping. 

The hum of the only bus that could have taken her to her apartment in a moderate enough amount of time that wouldn't have had Dad and Yang waiting any longer than they undoubtedly already had droned away into the distance. 

Aching, Ruby's legs wobbled when she finally gave up on running, standing in the pouring rain to lean on her knees, huffing for breath. 

Her hoodie and flannel clung to her skin, soaked through and weighing her shoulders down. "Great." she started, dragging her cold jelly legs in the vague direction of home. "Just great." Every bit of her was wet down to her socks, rain squelching around in shoes that she'd meant to replace a while ago. 

Passing cars didn't seem to mind adding some additional water to her legs and feet either, making no attempt to avoid puddles and casting waist-high waves of dirty road water over the sidewalk. 

The loud rumble of another vehicle drew up behind her, and grumbling, Ruby instinctively pressed herself as far from the roadside as possible to avoid a pseudo bath. 

"I'm not sure I've ever witnessed a sight so unfortunate." A voice announced beyond the sound of rainfall. 

Beside Ruby the sleek polish of corporate black and tinted windows had stopped on the sidewalk with all but one at the rear obscuring the inside of the vehicle, and the very recent, familiar profile of pale skin framed with effortless-looking midnight waves had Ruby’s jaw drop from place. 

It was her. How?- Why--

She however didn't look surprised at all, in fact, the way her brow arched high and lips thinned out made her look increasingly impatient, like she was waiting. 

"Well do you need an invitation? Or do you expect me to get out to open the door for you." 

Ruby's brain was numb. That definitely didn't sound like a question she should answer but she was still so confused. Apparently she was the only one. 

"Get in." 

Every lesson taught from Dad and Yang about trusting the generosity of random strangers flashed through her mind. Though this woman technically wasn't a stranger, and outside was so wet while it looked warm and dry in her very expensive-looking car that she definitely wasn't driving herself. 

And she was so- so late. 

Ruby hesitated, caught on the spot right up until the woman rolled her eyes and muttered without a beat: "Suit yourself." 

Was she going to regret not getting in that car? Ruby decided to never find out. 

"Wait! Wait-" The wheels had already started turning but she grabbed the door handle just in time. "Yes, yes please- thank you- So much-" 

-

Ruby did half wonder what it was she was doing, but explicitly only by half, otherwise her head felt like it might explode with resounding why's and what-if's. 

She sat frozen on one side of the mysterious woman's car not only because she was cold, but because the idea of moving even a millimetre may cause a nervous combustion. Not a good idea when everything in her immediate vicinity looked like it cost more than she could earn in an entire year--and she wasn't keen on running up a Tab with this woman anymore than she already had. 

"Roman, the western residential area." 

The car shifted lanes on order. In front of Ruby a narrow window of glazed glass separated the driver from the rest of the spacious interior. She could have been convinced the car was driving itself had it not been for the back of red hair in front of the wheel. 

"You got it." 

Fixed ahead, Ruby pretended she was on a cramped subway car, glazed over eyes looking anywhere but the people- the person in her immediate vicinity, and tried to pretend she was imagining the other passenger's burning gaze licking the back of her neck. 

"So uh…" This was awkward, unbearably so."Is this your car?" Why did everything she say sound so lame? 

Daring a glance to her left, she watched the woman recline into the corner between the seat and car door, the sound of leather creaking while she scribbled furiously on a notepad unfolded in her crossed lap. 

It didn't seem like she'd heard Ruby, who hesitated to call that a bad thing, otherwise she might have missed the pierce of silver streaking from her temple, and disappearing back into waves of dark hair. Oddly enough, it didn't make her appear older, and Ruby actually kind of liked it. 

"I've never uh.. Been in a-" 

"Darling, you're causing me physical pain. If you have nothing of substance to say please keep it to yourself.

I despise small-talk." She didn't look up from her pad, and suddenly that stain on her shirt looked a whole lot bigger than Ruby remembered. 

"No uh- sure! I mean of course. This is your car, of course it is. And your car your rules right? Dad is the same, he hates Yang's music and doesn't let her play it, and he tells me I'm basically a backseat driver so I have to-" 

For the first time since she'd got in the car an amber gaze regarded Ruby with full attention, staring as if she'd just sprouted a second head. The scrutiny had Ruby coiled in on her shoulders. 

"... Stop talking?" she finished weakly. 

Audibly sighing, the pen in her hand slotted into the spine of the pad before it was carelessly tossed into the free space between them. She didn't look angry, on the contrary, Ruby was sure there was a twitch of resignation on her face, but what she most certainly wasn't doing was smiling. 

"How do you manage this." She asked, voice never rising louder than the languid brush of a hand across velvet. Ruby decided she could listen to her talk for hours. “Really, it must be a natural talent to be so appropriately…" Her hand gestured over Ruby’s general direction. “...unaware.”

“Oh uh… Thank you.” Ruby nodded numbly and for whatever reason a sudden interest stoked flames in the stare fixed on her. It was gone in a blink, but the continuous focus on her made Ruby’s face hot. 

“I assume you have a name?” She asked as if scrutinizing Ruby for not introducing herself, and after quickly wiping her wet hands on the damp knees of her jeans the girl’s hand flew out.

“Ruby! I’m Ruby- Ruby Rose.” 

The interest evaporated entirely, sparing a glance down at Ruby’s hand as if it were a diseased limb before she moved to pick up her notepad and once again recline back into her side of the car. 

This was awful. Ruby’s smile strained, dutifully holding out her hand until it became obvious that she wasn’t interested in shaking it. That’s ok, she thought, since she was already soaking the chairs in her car by sitting on them, it was understandable if she didn’t want to get wet too. 

Silence droned on, and usually Ruby found the sounds of rain rather cathartic when she wasn’t stood out in it but it was hard to relax when she was so on edge. She tried to concentrate instead on the sound of the woman's biro hitting paper, and she distantly noted it was almost more soothing than the rain, but far, far above either of those was the smell of Jasmine hitting her like a tonne of bricks. 

Roman-the driver- had to have switched on the air conditioning. How could she not have noticed it again when they were in such close proximity?

“Thanks, by the way.” Ruby tried, sweaty hands fidgeting in her lap. “For the ride, I mean. I was in big trouble back there- not that i’m not already, in big trouble, I mean.”

“I was advised to give to charity, and that dropping an otherwise life-changing sum of Lien into the bank account of the next trending charitable cause didn’t count. What can I say, you certainly looked the part.”

There was nothing on her face, not a sliver of a smile on her lips, not the warmth of amusement in her eyes that might have suggested a joke- but Ruby didn’t notice. Instead she just snickered. 

“Yea… definitely isn’t the first time. Elderly folk always stop to give me some spare lien while i’ve been outside taking pictures. But hey, I don’t pay for hand-me-downs, and they’re super comfy, so-”

“Miss Fall, we’ve arrived. Hey kid- which door is yours?” 

“Oh! Uh-” Ruby sprung up from her seat, hands pressing against the tinted glass separating her from the drivers compartment. Her finger tapped furiously in the direction of gated steps soaked in generic concrete grey, the third of many that lined this side of the street. “That one! The one that’s got bits of red paint on it.” She shouted through the glass.

Behind her, the woman's work laid abandoned while Ruby entirely missed the glare that could have frozen Remnant over thrice and picked apart her corpse for food. Hand rising to massage her temple the woman scowled out sourly; “Both cabins have microphones. Sit down for god's sake.” 

Ruby did, all but collapsing back into her seat and casting an embarrassed, apologetic smile over to the woman as she shouldered her backpack. 

“Well uh...Thanks Miss. I see my dads car out there and he’s not gonna be happy with me so I’d better run quick.”

There was a short moment of silence between them where she didn’t answer. On the contrary, Ruby started to squirm when she realized she was being stared at, apparently in deep contemplation; Nails lacquered in vermilion disappeared when the woman combed her fingers through dark and silver strands, head leant in her hand while Ruby practically watched the gears in her mind rotating. 

After a long, awkward minute, she spoke again:

“What do you do for work, girl?”

It didn’t top any of the shotgun remarks she’d made so far, but that wasn’t to say that the question wasn’t strange. Ruby answered none the less. 

“Photography. Well uh… amateur photography, actually. I’ve just completed my Masters at Beacon and I guess you could say I'm… For hire?” 

She tried to keep the hope out of her voice, however unsuccessfully, and the woman across from her picked up on it like a predator picking at scraps. Lips parting, she smiled with a narrow show of teeth just like before, in the coffee shop. From the pocket of her woollen jacket she pulled out a simple black card that at first appeared to be blank, until she held it up to Ruby in middle and forefinger to take. 

It was embossed along the border on both sides, patterns winding and intertwining just two letters: C and F. 

Ruby gingerly took it from her hand, inspecting it back and front and turning her confused expression back up to ask, but the woman beat her to it, this time abandoning the cold, icy wall she’d slotted between them. 

Ruby didn’t know how she’d moved from one position to the other so fast, only that she was suddenly a lot closer than before. For a moment she saw double, struggling to focus as the waves of her soft, dark hair curtained them like a privacy screen. They weren’t touching, but were dangerously close as to be a tease of its own and the more Ruby sunk back, the more her shadow loomed over until the above light was nothing but a halo against the woman’s head. 

“When there’s more to you than naive admiration and Polaroids of beautiful women in coffee shops…”

Her breath scorched Ruby’s already burning face. Something about her smell, about her voice, was driving her to the brink of no return. She wasn’t imagining this, not when she could just lean forward and their noses would touch, or reach for the lapels of her jacket and tug. 

The small, tight lines Ruby had noticed gracing the corners of her lips at a distance pulled her wry smile a little harder. She could see them creeping in at the tips of her eyes too, but they took nothing away from the high planes of cheekbones that perfect line from jaw to throat that Ruby had managed to capture on film. 

Only now.. She wanted the lens out of the way, to touch with her fingertips, her mouth, and the idea alone sent a bolt of heat between her legs. 

Wait… What was she reaching for? 

“-come find me.”

The door she hadn’t realized she’d pressed herself helplessly against was suddenly absent from Ruby’s back. Tumbling backwards out of the car she landed with a yelp onto the sidewalk as a heap of wet denim and plaid. 

The car roared away down the street and out of sight, and Ruby's flail of muffled thanks was called out from beneath her flipped-up jacket to no one in particular. 

"Rubes?!" 

"Oh" Well, except one. Ruby scrambled around a little before she was able to throw her jacket out of her face to see where the voice had come from. 

It took a quick glance of her surroundings before it clicked that she had been literally dropped directly outside her apartment door, and right in front of a fiery mane of sunlight hair.

Yang, who usually was the first to make fun and tease her over whatever unfortunate situation she'd managed to conjure for herself, instead stood over Ruby, jaw dropped in hard-won shock.

"Heeeey sis!" Ruby bashfully chirped up from the ground. "Sorry I'm late, I- EEP!" 

Yang hauled her up off the path by the scruff of her hoodie, near enough dangling her on her toes, and Ruby couldn't hide the sheepish grin on her face when Yang said:

"Ruby, I wanna be SO mad at you right now, but if I am you might not tell me this story and I want EVERYTHING."

"..Heh, well… it's a good one. Though I think we’ll need a diluted version for Dad. "


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A run-of-the-mill catch up with a particular Schnee heiress becomes a full-blown investigation that Ruby definitely didn't expect.

"You did WHAT?!" 

Even though the situation had worked out in her favour it wasn't one of Ruby's smartest spur-of-the-moment decisions in hindsight, and if she didn't already understand the implications herself, she was about to know all about them. 

The screech of Weiss' voice could have curdled cheese from the other end of the phone, and to avoid bursting an eardrum Ruby held her scroll-one of Yang's spares-away from herself at a safe distance. If anything the cheap, tinny speaker made the shrill noise all the worse. 

"You DOLT, do you have ANY idea what could have happened? What if she had robbed you? Or worse, what if she'd been a serial killer?" 

"Then I'd leave the debt in my will to Weiss Schnee?" 

It wasn't the first attempt at lightening the mood that Ruby had immediately regretted thus far. As if Yang hadn't hounded her enough, Weiss was furious no matter how much she tried to placate her. 

"Ruby Rose this is NOT a time to make jokes, you could have been hurt!" 

"Weiss, it's fiiiine, really. " Ruby collapsed back on her bed, wriggling her way up to the pillows. "I'M fine, I got a ride home aaand I got off scott-free!" Even if she still felt terrible about it. "See? Not all bad." 

"Well." Weiss started, snapping out curtly. "Well she sounded like a horrid woman, I don't like her. Who was she, anyway?" 

Ruby sighed a little, reaching down to her jeans pocket to produce the small black card she had been gifted in the car. The paper edges had worn away a little, and a hard crease was folded down the middle from where she'd accidentally sat on it. Despite that, the letters were clearly visible on both front and reverse. 

"I don't know" Ruby admitted after a moment, holding it up to the light with two fingers, same as the woman had done when offering it to her. 

"She didn't say. But she was definitely important-looking, y'know the expensive clothes, fancy car type? Oh! The driver did say her name. Well, surname." Ruby chewed her bottom lip in thought, screwing her eyes shut to help cast her mind back.

It'd been weeks between a gruelling job hunt, Mom's anniversary, and tiptoeing around Yang's difficult transition where she hadn't exactly been forgiving of Ruby's forgetfulness. Dad had managed to make her see reason- He never feared a blunt approach with the hot-headed blonde, and Ruby was thankful for it. She didn't really have an abundance of thick skin like that.

Pushing it aside Ruby thought of long, manicured nails so red that it made her involuntary blush look pink at the thought. She remembered tall and slender dwarfing her, and eyes so bright they could have been carved from amber. 

"Fall" Ruby suddenly piped up after a moment. The color of her eyes reminded Ruby of Autumn leaves. "So I guess C. Fall?" 

For a moment she thought that maybe Yang's hand-me-down scroll had died, or that the line was dead when Weiss didn't say anything right away. She muttered a quick check to make sure. 

"I'm still here you dolt! I'm thinking." Weiss snapped, but then when another few seconds of unusual silence passed, Ruby's brows couldn't help but gather, concerned, until finally-

"Grab your jacket and meet me at Tucksons. I'll call Blake, she can join us."

"Huh, what? Weiss, what's going on? And why are we inviting Blake? Is this about Yang?" she asked incredulously. 

"What? No! Look, Tucksons, ten minutes. Don't be late!" 

"But Weiss it takes twenty minutes to-" But Ruby wasn't given the chance to finish: the line went dead.

-

There was something strange about the way Weiss had reacted, the sort of strange that balled a lump of anxiety in Ruby's stomach and played ping-pong against her ribs. What could be so important that she needed to say it in person? And with Blake there no less. 

If anything it spurred her to march all the way to Tucksons in more or less a full-blown jog. When she finally barrelled through the same doors that she distantly remembered exiting a few weeks ago, she was a sweaty, panting mess, leant heavily on her knees just to find her breath. 

"Ruby!" 

She snapped up at the call of her name, and In the usual booth, two from the door, Weiss was waving her over impatiently. On her right a head of dark hair poked out from behind a book, and Faunus ears that were unmistakably Blake's twitched in Ruby's direction. 

"And what took you so long?" Icy blue searched her up and down as Ruby took the seat opposite, managing only an exasperated groan in response. 

"Please Weiss, my legs are going to fall off." She tried not to sound too annoyed at making her near lose a lung trying to get here on time, but her effort was rewarded as Weiss gingerly slid a trophy-sized coffee mug overflowing with cream and toppings across the table to her. 

Ruby's eyes grew saucer-wide, cradling the hot ceramic like a religious chalice and drawing it up to her nose, inhaling deeply. "Aw yea, nice Weiss rules."

"Yes yes." Weiss said, waving her hand aside as if dusting the compliment away. "Now let's get down to it."

"About time." Blake hummed boredly, peeking up from behind her book to regard them both together. "You still haven't told me why I'm here, or why you wanted to wait for Ruby." 

Ruby finally lowered her cup after a long gulp of coffee, having not bothered to wait for it to cool she practically inhaled it and set her throat on fire for a moment. 

Blake's lips twitched in a rare smile, picking up a napkin to reach for Ruby's face, catching a stray blob of cream on her nose as if mopping up a messy child, and just like a child Ruby squeaked in protest, batting her away. 

"It's good to see you too." Blake laughed a little right before her expression drooped to a small, sad smile. Even when she tried to hide it, it was her Faunus ears that were quick to give her away and Ruby had known Blake long enough to tell. "We shouldn't rely on Weiss to make the effort for us." 

"Excuse me! What is that supposed to mean?" 

Ruby accidentally blew bubbles when she snickered into her drink, joining Blake in a coy smile. "Oh c'mon Weiss, you know we love you too. It's this adult stuff that's getting in the way, bills, rent-" 

"Accepting rides home from strangers." Weiss finished pointedly, eyebrows raised in Ruby’s direction and most definitely unamused. 

Ruby wasn't sure whether to sink in on herself, roll her eyes or just hide behind her mug. In the end she opted for all 3, and It was enough to make Blake put her book down on the table with an annoyed sigh, now full to attention. 

"All right you two, what's going on?" 

Thanking her lucky stars Ruby went on to explain the story from the beginning without any intervention from Weiss, and as she recounted the valid details while missing out the ones that would have flushed her cheeks red, she couldn't help notice Blake's expression grow a little darker the more she spoke. 

"... So I got out of the car- well, more like fell out- and she gave me this card, and that was it!" Ruby finished by putting the small worn keepsake in the center of the table between them. Weiss didn't look at it, instead turning to Blake expectantly as if she already knew her reaction would be to look at the business card with an impressive level of disgust. 

"Blake?" Ruby asked, frowning.

This time, the Faunus was quiet for a long moment. She moved her book aside entirely to lean on the table with her cheek resting in her fist, meeting Ruby eye-to-eye. 

"Do you know who Cinder Fall is?" Her gaze hardened when the name fell out of her mouth, but Ruby only stared back blankly. 

"Uh.. No. Should I?" Ruby began, then almost immediately her face lit up in realization of the surname Blake had used. She tried to prevent any trace of excitement from flaring up on her face, but it didn't help that her pulse jump-started into a frenzy. "Is that her name?" she asked as casually as possible. "Cinder?" 

"Trust Ruby to be the only photography major that DOESN'T know who Cinder Fall is." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, and Ruby scrunched up her face. "Honestly, how you make it from one day to the next is a mystery."

She was hearing that a lot lately. "Well how do YOU know her, Princess?" 

"Do you remember that awful family portrait at the Schnee Manor? The one that my father gloated about to every guest during last years fall reception? Cinder Fall took that, right before Winter left to attend Atlas Academy." 

Ruby did remember. She'd been there repaying Weiss a favor by making her fathers mandatory Schnee family functions a little less impossible to bare. Having to mingle among every portly business tycoon in Atlas attempting to court Weiss while they spent the evening overindulging on free champagne chutes and boasting their wealth was an awkward and entirely forgettable experience. 

She did, however, distinctly remember that portrait and how unhappy the Schnee sisters looked to be partaking. 

"Look-" Weiss reached beside her, into a bag and unfurled a magazine onto the table top. Ruby recognized it right away and almost rolled her eyes at the cover of ‘ADEL’ embossed in laminated gold, only because the Heiress at least once a week had insisted on trying to convert her from 'homeless fashion' as she liked to put it.

"Weiss.. How many times are we gonna talk about this?" Ruby started. 

"Wait, just look." She flipped to the inside pages where an autumn-themed double spread advertised skinny-looking women wearing the latest fashion trends, but Weiss’ finger bypassed those, drifting over the bottom corner of each photograph to the fine-print text beneath. 

‘Director of Photography: Cinder Fall’ 

“Whoa..” Ruby took- near enough snatched the magazine from Weiss to flip through the pages. All the photographs had the same woman credited beneath them. “..She’s good.”

“She’s also horrid.” Blake interjected with a mutter, closing the magazine for Ruby and pulling it away, despite her obvious pouting.  
“When Velvet worked there i'd hear her come back from the Adel offices in the middle of the night because that woman kept everybody snowed under with impossible workloads. Then at 4am the next day she’d get up to do it all over again. Velv never complained, I think she was afraid to. But she did say that the moment somebody made a mistake, or if Cinder Fall didn't think someone could hack it she'd either make their job horrible for them, or she'd fire them. Working under her was thankless.”

As she sipped her tea, Ruby could tell Blake was reeling in her frustration. Velvet wasn't just her flatmate, they had been close friends long before Ruby had known either of them. It was hard to imagine Velvet as anything but the quiet, awkwardly optimistic rabbit Faunus she was. And with a brilliant eye behind the lens no less.

Was this woman really that bad? Ruby felt her heart sink a little, especially as Blake continued:

“I don’t know why she gave you that card Ruby, but from what I've heard, she’s nothing but bad news. You should be careful."

Ruby knew she hadn't suggested that she would do anything at all, yet there was something very disconcerting about the tone Blake used, something knowing, as if Ruby were as transparent as glass and the Faunus could zone in on her memory of amber firelight, of how the woman's tongue and lips lapping around conversation had been enough to run her blood hot. 

"Uh.. Yea." A blush crept past Ruby's guard, and she shifted around to awkwardly cross her thighs, draining her mug in order to sneak a glance at the cover of ADEL from the corner of her eye. Picking the business card back up, Ruby flipped it between her fingers with a dejected sigh.

"You're probably right." 

The conversation managed to steer clear from the initial topic, and Ruby couldn't help but be thankful that she was no longer the focus of Blake's knowing frown and attentive gaze. Instead the three of them took the opportunity to catch up properly, because of all the truths Blake knew, she was right in saying that they'd all hardly seen each other over the last few months. 

And well.. Yang was Yang. 

She could tell that her sister's name had been the tip of Blake's tongue the entire time, and she seemed to always perk up to any mention of family but Ruby clung to the promise not to bring her up unless somebody specifically asked, as much as she wished she didn't have to. 

That never stopped Weiss though, and it was almost a relief for Ruby to say: "Yang is good! Well, not good but she'll get to 'good' pretty soon I think. She's just.. Adjusting."

The conversation moved on a lot faster than the last topic had, with Weiss seemingly satisfied with the answer and Blake settling for what Ruby could give. 

When Weiss was quite happy to take over the spotlight it was to discuss the finer inner-workings of her job; a few billion lien here, a Faunus work strike there, and Ruby was back to feeling like the baby of the group.

She’d trailed behind her friends by almost 2 full years; With Weiss knee-deep in both hers and her estranged sister’s share of the SDC, it was rare to get a moment of her time, while Blake's studies had led her to the ownership of a cushy bookstore, run almost entirely by herself she was equally impossible to get ahold of. 

Ruby admittedly was struggling to find her feet a little. She wasn't good with money, and was even worse at finding a way to earn it. Some days it felt that for every application she'd submit, she'd get two rejections in return until she was swimming in ones that she didn't even remember sending in the first place. 

The next morning didn't allow for any recompense either. 2 in the mailbox, 3 in her inbox all with a similar theme: 

'Too overqualified for minimum wage. No studio experience.' 

The same old song and dance, she'd had more than enough of this tune. 

Ruby was in her pajamas at home, halfway through a leftover sandwich rescued from yesterday's impromptu lunch and a glass of dubiously dated milk before her head dropped onto her computer desk. There was no way she could keep going like this.  
Turning her head, she looked longingly at the Polaroid and business card left abandoned there since yesterday, the only proof of her encounter with that coy, confident smile and even then it still hadn't felt real. 

She'd tried her best to put Cinder Fall out of mind, and make a real effort to concentrate on hunting for jobs that didn't require every breath drawn to be in the proximity of a totalitarian boss intent on running her into the ground. 

Then again.. would it really be better not to try at all? 

Ruby didn't bother answering that, because she'd already made up her mind. Reaching for her scroll she flicked open a window and started a new search.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters + revisions to the first chapter in one update? Oh my.
> 
> It's been fun writing a bit more of a lighthearted story. As always please Kudos if you enjoyed, and let me know your thoughts in the comments


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a terrible idea, but that never stopped Ruby Rose before.

By Lunchtime Ruby hadn't noticed how hungry she was because her stomach was full of squirming knots that only worsened the more she walked. She'd left her flat some time ago with a burst of renewed momentum in her step and an address scribbled down on a piece of paper, clutched in her grip like a lifeline. 

Downtown Vale wasn't exactly a metropolis of hi-rise buildings so much as it was packed with culture, modernisation traded for sculpture with the front of buildings carved out in beautiful accents, and murals teeming with history it was a tourist hotspot. Weiss had described it as 'quaint' in comparison to Atlas. 

The lunchtime rush had Ruby shoulder to shoulder with crowds as she tried to weave her way through Vales business district without an accident. A few wrong left turns, and a couple of incredulous looks later, she was pointed in the right direction by some people that had stopped just long enough to take pity on her, and before long Ruby was stood just beyond the lane for valet parking with her neck craned back. 

"Whoa.." 

The Argus House was unlike anything else in downtown Vale, towering like a single shard of glass it would have appeared invisible had it not been for the surrounding concrete jungle reflected against its surface, and where the building rose highest, Ruby could see clouds and liquid blue swimming around the glass. 

A small gaggle of middle-aged suits buzzed past her, drawing Ruby to the large, revolving doors at the entrance. Ruby leaned her head back to stare at the sky, praying to whatever Gods looking down on her that the only way she'd leave this building was with a job.

Well, she'd come this far. No time like the present.

Seizing her chance she slipped in alongside the crowd of women clucking like hens, sinking as small as possible to seem inconspicuous while careful not to have her toes trodden by the dangerous stampede of heels. 

Ejected into the lobby, she'd done it, she was in, and mounted upon the farthest wall between opposing staircases were etched glass plates listing the contents of each floor. On number 7, in gold lettering, was Adel. 

Ruby dialled back her grin and kept a straight spine, marching regimentally across the marble foyer with her camera swaying purposefully about her neck. Think professional thoughts, think professional thoughts-

"Excuse me, young miss." 

Busted. Her hopes and dreams of a job: up in explosive dust. 

Ruby's eyes were squeezed shut when she turned slowly towards the gruff voice, cracking a lid open to see the lapels of a suit and tucked tie: her eye had to climb a LOT higher to see the tidy fluff of a well-kept beard, and hair slicked back with enough product that it looked wet. If she squinted Ruby could JUST read the badge pinned to his breast, gold lettering against black: Junior. 

"Uh.." A million different excuses blurred through Ruby's mind in a panic but before she could draw upon even one he spoke again in a lowered voice. 

“Listen, if I’ve told you people once, I've told you a thousand times: You can’t loiter, you can’t squat and you can’t pitch a tent in here. Now beat it.”

“I..um…” Ruby hadn’t really considered what she’d look like after a mile and a half walk, but apparently it was enough to be considered a little too common for this guy’s tastes, even after she’d made the extra effort to trade out comfy cotton plaid for the only stiff-collared shirt in her wardrobe. She took the extended moment that her dumb struck face had bought her to work through the panic and come up with a believable, tangible story but all her brain managed to blurt out was:

“I’m here to see Cinder Fall?”

“Uh huh. Sure you are.” His massive hand wrapped around her arm almost twice, steering Ruby towards the exit while she wriggled in his grip. 

“H-hey! Wait-I can prove it!” This wasn’t going to work, she thought morbidly, but no harm in trying. Ruby pulled the little black card, bent and wrinkled from her back pocket and flashed it up in front of his nose. 

Right away Ruby was released. Junior reeled back, his face draining to the color of milk as if he’d just witnessed the rising of a ghost. Ruby only blinked, still holding the card up albeit numbly. 

“I-I see. Sincerest apologies miss..?” 

No way this was working. Had to be bluffing. “...Uh...Ruby Rose?” She tested, and instantly he bowed waist-deep before patting down any wrinkles inflicted on the arm of her jacket. 

“Miss Rose, let me open the security gate, uh-” He babbled on the spot for a moment, panicking quite possibly more than Ruby currently was before he fumbled with a lanyard around his neck, marching up to the glass barriers that separate the staircases from the rest of the foyer. 

Passing his card over a sensor, the twin-glass doors swung open and he gestured for her to follow through. “Straight ahead, and to the right. Adel is on the 7th floor. And if you wouldn’t mind… I’d appreciate you not mentioning this to Miss Fall.” The last part was all but whispered, as if trying not to summon the boogyman herself. 

Ruby wasn’t sure if trying to pick her jaw up would even work at this point. She did at least manage a small nod in agreement when walking through the gate which Junior accepted like religion, his face awash with relief. 

It was the last thing Ruby saw before she glided to the elevators in stunned silence, but by the 3rd floor her hands had started to sweat. She focused on making herself look a little more presentable, pulling her shirt straight, patting her wild hair flat, anything to try staunching her growing panic. 

What would the woman- Cinder- say when she saw her? Would she even remember her? Their little moment in the car suddenly flashed through Ruby’s mind, when parted lips had curled slyly, breathing close slow and steady against her face, and the heat of embarrassment flushed both of Ruby’s cheeks at the memory. She’d been so affected just by mingling in her presence, how would asking for a job work when Ruby had barely managed to hold a sentence together?

When Ruby reached the 7th floor and the Ding! Of the elevator brought her back down to earth, there was precious little buffer time before the noise of Adel near enough blew her back down seven floors. 

Ruby stepped out in awe until she had to jump back inside with a squeak, narrowly avoiding death by a clothing rail. Zooming past, a flustered-looking young man at its helm shouted a passing apology. Ruby exhaled an unsteady breath, her heart hammering. She made sure to check both ways this time before easing a toe out into what could only be described as utter chaos. 

In front of the backlit sign for Adel, no one was manning the reception area. In one direction, glass partitions felt more like safety glass at a zoo as Ruby watched employees rushing around shouldering clothes, boards, stacks of files and magazines, some colliding with one another in explosions of paper or fabrics. On the left, black curtains cascaded into separating corridors and from where Ruby could see, rooms were laid out with various set pieces and lighting set-up’s.

“Move-move!” Ruby squeaked again, whipping back to the other side of the reception where another employee ripped by her towards the curtains just ahead of two young women walking in unified step. Rubbing her eyes Ruby blinked thrice. Not only where they stunning, dressed in opposing layers of red and blue but both their features were identical, and from the looks of it, also thoroughly unimpressed and they chatted impatiently amongst themselves. 

“Kid if you’re looking for citizens advice it’s in the building across the road.”

When Ruby whipped around she found that voice was indeed meant for her. Eyes obscured by sunglasses made it impossible for Ruby to make anything out of the woman's expression, but a hand on her hip as she tilted down to Ruby’s level allowed her to see the slight glitter of amusement from over her nose. “H-hi, uh, this is Adel right?” Crap, that sounded stupid. “I-I mean i’m looking for-”

“Coco, the royalty wants a different lighting set-up and the Malachite's are getting restless. Please say yes.” 

With so many people rushing back and forth around them Ruby had no idea where the extra voice had carried from above the bustle, but Coco- the woman in question- reached beneath her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose, looking sour. 

“We agreed on this weeks ago, why is she- ugh, you know what, fine.” Immediately, chocolate eyes turned back to regard Ruby. Sweeping her crop of dark hair back beneath a stylish beret she sighed. “Walk with me kid, and keep up.” she said, lengths of beads and chains clinking together after she'd set off towards the curtains. 

Ruby flustered, but chased behind no less, and as Coco continued to speak she tried to drop kick her brain into some form of action. “I’m gonna guess by that camera around your neck and the scared look on your face that you’re here for a job. I’m Coco Adel, which I don’t think you guessed either, but I'll give you that one for free."

Ruby was halfway through removing her binder- the one with her favourite Polaroids- from her backpack since now seemed like a good time to prepare herself, when instead of presenting it she brought it up to her forehead, and mouthed as many profanities behind it as she could. 

Coco Adel, Coco Adel. Of course, she was one of the youngest, most successful fashion entrepreneurs of her time greeting Ruby through the doors of her own studio. How did she manage to gloriously put her foot in it every single time? 

"Hey let me look at that." The binder was yanked up from Ruby's hands, and before she could protest Coco was thumbing through random pages as they walked, a chorus of 'hmm's and 'ahh' s turning Ruby's face pale. She walked behind on her tiptoes, desperately trying to see which ones she was looking at. 

"These are cute, I don't see a lot of Polaroid portfolio's, and even less good ones--ladies hello-" 

Instantly the binder was thrown up in Ruby's face to take back. Coco had led them behind a length of curtain where rows of vanity mirrors were brightly lit, and sitting in front of two of them were the girls--twins Ruby realized, being fussed over by hair and makeup artists. Coco inserted herself in between the muddle, sweeping her Sunglasses up over her beret to greet the girls with the most puckered, sympathetic expression Ruby had seen in her life. 

"Ladies, ladies I am so, so sorry for the delay. My coworker is somewhat of a perfectionist and believes our current setup just isn't up to your standards."

Dancing her weight from one foot to the other Ruby stood in awkward silence and tried to tune out of the conversation, not that black curtains granted any real distraction. She stood, trying to look calm and professional and NOT scared while her brain raced. 

"I'll have a little something sent up while you wait hmm?" 

The twins looked somewhat less annoyed after Coco entirely wooed the situation in her favor before she set off again, only to grab some poor, nervous-looking studio hand by the arm on his way by; "Get a bottle of Dom Perignon up here right now. I don't care how, just make it happen." 

It was as if Coco had just tossed gasoline around the studio and lit a match under his ass: Dropping what he was doing right there on the floor in front of them he bolted off in another direction. The glasses came back down upon Coco's nose, and she turned to Ruby with a deep, composing sigh. "You might have noticed that everything is combusting." 

Ruby laughed, loud and awkwardly, only because she didn't quite know how she should respond to that, wondering if it were a trick question and if she should answer through her teeth with blind enthusiasm. "I'm gonna hazard a guess that you've never set foot in a studio before and Lisa up at Human Resources is scraping the barrel- no offense, kid. You're all kinds of cute, but cute gets chewed up and spat out here."

Immediately Ruby's hopes deflated like a punctured balloon. Clutching her binder tight to her chest, she was sort of glad that Coco hadn't turned around to see the poorly veiled disappointment on her face. Then she remembered why she was here in the first place, and it wasn't by Coco Adel's request. For some reason that little black slip of card in her back pocket felt like it was burning against her skin, daring her to say something. 

What the hell, Ruby thought. "Actually uh.. It was Cinder Fall who asked me here."

They'd been crossing through a room buzzing with technicians and set artists when Coco stopped so suddenly that Ruby walked straight into the back of her. 

"Listen, kid." For some reason Coco's voice adopted a lower octave when she turned to say; "Cinder is a little busy right now, and when I say busy I mean; breathing fire and creating a shitstorm." Punctuating her point her arms flew out in broad gesture to the surrounding chaos. "You picked a bad day." 

Everyday was becoming one of those days. Ruby opened her mouth, hoping a plead might tumble out that wasn't a choked noise except.. That's what happened anyway, because on the other side of the room she watched bodies either part like the red sea, or turn tail and RUN in the opposite direction from the curtains. 

Panicked voices that had previously been shouting or rambling dropped away to a whisper until the only voice Ruby could hear was smooth, dribbling warmth down her spine. 

"- an invalid could take one look at those girls and know that a short light will illuminate their pores like craters. Why don't we just, I don't know, point the camera at the moon?" 

Ruby couldn't breathe for a moment, not when her heart thumped so hard it felt like it had fit itself in her throat. 

It was her. 

She didn't exhale until Coco, with her back to the commotion, groaned aloud, fingers once again reaching up to pinch beneath her sunglasses. 

"She's been here for 30 minutes and I'm already 30 seconds from retiring." Coco turned away, and as if remembering Ruby was still standing there she turned back, and pointed back in the direction they'd just came. "Through there, just-wait in the dressing room. I'll tell her you're here. And don't touch anything."

"T-thank you." Ruby managed just barely, tripping over herself when running back between the curtains. "Thank you so much." 

"Yea, don't thank me just yet kid." 

-

When she realized she'd been periodically checking the time on her phone out of nervous habit Ruby decided to switch it off. She suddenly understood why Weiss hated to be kept waiting. 

The dressing room, as Coco had described it, took up more floor space than Ruby’s entire apartment, racks upon racks of what she could only assume were designer clothing lining the walls, and compartments of heels mounted like weapons had her distantly musing over how much Weiss would pay just to be sat where she was right now. 

Perched on a stool by the entrance, Ruby slapped her hand down on her knee to stop it from shaking when at the same time the door clicked open and a very familiar voice spilled in mid-sentence. 

"-Coco to add the flash softbox, I want Autumn not Halloween." 

Ruby's spine shot straight to attention, sweaty hands gripping the binder in her lap while she tried to breathe normally through her nose. 

The staring, however, she had no control over. 

Miss Fall strode in, black and white parting between her fingers as she swept her hair over one shoulder, nails, lacquered in a burgundy so dark it appeared black, picking through a rack of feathered accessories with her fingers thoughtfully tracing the perfect, pink curve of her bottom lip. 

Ruby tried to ignore the way her body twitched all over, but she was practically shivering by the time her eyes fell to trace the slender line of her throat, then to the risqué sliver of skin revealed between the undone buttons of a white, high-collared shirt. 

"Melanie." Her hand fell on a platinum feather boa that shone iridescent cyan when it was passed out through the doorway to another terrified-looking studio hand wearing an ensemble of radio gear. Next, a white and red feather brooch, or hair clip- Ruby wasn't sure- was added to the pile. "Miltia. I trust you can figure out which is which this time without embarrassing me." 

"Y-yes Cinder. Sorry Cinder." 

The door slammed shut, they were gone, and Ruby suddenly felt like she'd been locked in a cage with a panther. Maybe something bigger that was too engrossed in thumbing through hangers, and hadn't quite noticed Ruby sitting there frozen over in fear.

"... I-" 

"And you are?" 

Or maybe because she could smell fear she simply didn't need to look.

Ruby managed, just barely, to hop off the stool without her knees giving way. Everything she’d recited in her head from every possible scenario to every outcome were suddenly ejected from her brain, and she began to panic. 

"W-we met a few weeks ago in the cafe, you gave me your c-card and-" 

"Ah, the Red girl that talked far too much." Cinder said absently, picking out items to hold up and observe until a dissatisfied grunt prompted their rejection.

True to the nickname Ruby flushed with an embarrassed blush she could feel creeping down to her chest.

"A-actually it's R-Ruby-" 

"Fascinating. See yourself out." 

Wait, what? 

Ruby's entire chest felt like it had just plummeted into the pit of her stomach. She’d drawled with a tone of finality, sounding almost bored while she continued to pluck hangers out from the rack and judge their contents while Ruby stood at a complete loss for how to salvage this. The woman- Cinder- her eyes hadn’t so much as gleaned in Ruby’s direction, never mind given her a chance. The volume of Blake’s warnings were itching at the back of her mind, that it was a mercy to avoid this woman at all costs and yet.. 

Fidgeting with her trouser pocket, Ruby sagged, her sigh one of defeat. She should take it as a blessing in disguise. 

“I uh… I’m sorry. I held on to this and uh..” Ruby started off in a mumble, trying to find the right words while her hand dug around in her pocket, pulling out a Polaroid: One of two she’d kept for herself, slotted right alongside the business card she’d been gifted. “I saw a great shot, and I just couldn’t help it, but.. I should have asked you first. That was wrong of me- and maybe a little weird too.”

The memory of when Ruby had extended her hand out to this woman the first time flashed through her mind. Maybe it would be different this time, so with a deep breath she presented the first Polaroid she’d kept, eyes softly pleading for her to take it.

The first glance that Ruby was granted was positively venomous and instantly she wondered if she’d thoroughly shot herself in the foot yet again. Cinder’s eyes searched her over in quick glances, burning wherever they landed until Ruby’s neck, chest and face all felt like they were on fire.   
The Polaroid exchanged hands without words. Ruby watched as her expression fell into something resembling neutral, eyes flitting over the image until finally she said blandly: “This could constitute as stalking.” Cinder’s eyes lifted, continuing to regard her with the same even, contemplative gaze. “When I gave you that card that you’ve undoubtedly used to bribe your way into this building, I expected it to be in months, perhaps years. Not next week.”

Ruby winced because she was right, and her implication couldn’t have been more transparent if she’d tried. However what Ruby didn’t expect was the way her lips twitched upward in a cruel smile, and for some reason she was suddenly squirming, recalling the stifling heat in Cinder’s car.

“Wait I-” Ruby started feebly. “I didn’t- I mean, that’s not why I-”

“Then why ARE you here, dear? If you had read Adel you’d have known who I was, but you obviously hadn’t the faintest idea. You don’t know me, you don’t know this business, and you obviously don’t know fashion.”

Ruby was struggling desperately for the right words, for ANY words for that matter. She must have looked like a fish out of water, jaw closing and slacking. 

"You're right, I don't really know anything about fashion, or Adel but- but I learn really fast and I'm reliable and-" a surge of inspiration jolted a little bit of confidence into Ruby's voice when she said: "I think you'd really benefit having me as your.. A-assistant."

"I would, would I?" She sounded annoyed, oh gods Ruby was well and truly blowing it. She couldn't just assume she knew anything about what this woman wanted, what was she thinking? But she'd already spilled over, and all she'd gotten out of it was a borderline panic attack from it the high twitch of Cinder Fall's brow. 

"Then my 'assistant' should anticipate my every need, yes? You can tell me what those are at this very moment?" 

Her expression held like stone, nails drumming on the metal spine of the accessory rack until Ruby felt it course a shudder through her body, like scratching a chalkboard. Yet, there was something knowing twinkling in the amber of her eye. 

If Ruby's heart hadn't already been racing she might have believed she was suffering an onset heart attack. 

"Well?" Cinder asked impatiently, leaving the rail to stalk a pace or two closer. 

".. I um.." A very familiar, sweet scent invaded Ruby’s senses, making her feel dizzy while Cinder towered over her, waiting expectantly. ".. A.. A flat light. You need a flat light to help.. draw away from imperfections, and.. " Her voice drifted off somewhere unimportant, acutely aware that if she hadn't taken a step back when she did, Cinders heel would have been dangerously level with her instep. 

Her hips canted just enough to bring them eye to eye, and Ruby fought with the strength of a thousand celebite nuns not to glance down at the generous spill of skin showing from between this woman's parted shirt, nor the tantalising edge of lace that peeked out. "..For me to stop t-talking?" Ruby managed, sounding like she'd just run a marathon. 

A low, contemplative hum between them rolled waves of heat on Ruby's already scorched cheeks. "That's right, Red." Cinder confirmed, breathing out an amused husk. 

She could have told Ruby the world was coming to an end, that the sky was purple, that she'd just kicked her dog and Ruby would ask her what shoes she'd been using if it meant listening to all the ways her throat housed and teased each syllable. 

Cinder hadn't used Ruby’s actual name once, and neither had Ruby used hers, though she hadn't made up a nickname for her either. 

"Please Miss.. Uh, Fall." She tried. Her hand went to her hair, digging in for some kind of stability over herself. She felt ridiculous. "I really, really need this. If you gave me a chance I'd work SO hard I'd-" 

"Do you ever draw air, girl?" Cinder's eyes narrowed, and Ruby's mouth snapped closed with an undignified squeak. No talking, right. "Well?" She was still staring down at Ruby when standing tall and leant on one hip, was she seriously expecting an answer? 

'Yes?' Ruby didn't say, instead she stood very, very still, finding the woman's glare impossible to hold, instead she looked, and felt, decidedly lost. 

"The flat light?" 

Oh. OH. Ruby snapped up. She wasn't crazy, she'd heard that right hadn't she? She wasn't having some sort of fever dream? When Cinders expression didn't change from mildly annoyed, Ruby's entire face hurt with the effort to not explode into a cheshire grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo. Ruby is a goofball and it's giving me life.  
As always please Kudos if you enjoyed, and let me know your thoughts in the comments


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teething problems are normal, unless the teeth in question were the one's you're trying to avoid (thinking about).

Ruby couldn't sleep that night, tossing and turning she'd gotten out of bed more than once to do anything that meant killing time. It was hard to tell whether nerves or excitement that had her buzzing at all hours but she'd been riding a high ever since Cinder had dismissed her. Less than an hour after recommending the flat light, and once she was done with gorging on the sight of the studio's equipment room Cinder brushed her presence away like a piece of stray lint. 

'HR are on the next floor, I trust you can work out the rest.' 

After powering through the dishes and jogging a few laps around her box apartment Ruby finally managed to burn out, so when her scroll blared a gods-awful noise that sounded something akin to a cat drowning in a tin bucket it felt like she'd only just shut her eyes. 

She whimpered aloud, hands flailing among the sheets to locate her scroll.The screen blinded her not with an alarm, but a call from an unknown number. It was 6:44am. Turns out she HAD just shut her eyes; who in the world was calling at this hour? 

"...mmhello-"

"Where are you?" 

Ruby rolled over onto her elbows, groggily glancing back at the number again. 

".. Uh, who is this?-" 

"I have yesterday's drafts to review, estimations for post-processing and touch-ups that no amount of lighting amendments could avoid, a meeting to schedule with our third-party vendors that must happen before 4pm today, and my stylist has cancelled my 12:45 appointment because she decided to catch influenza. Can you tell me what I'm missing, Red?" 

Ruby bolted straight when her brain finally caught up. The voice from the other end of the phone was entirely, and terrifyingly, neutral. 

“Ms Fall- crap-” She almost swore outright, throwing all her limbs out of the bedside and hitting the floor in a scramble. “I-I’m so, so sorry, I was so sure the HR lady- Lisa- said 9:30- I don’t-” That’s because she DID say to be at Adel for 9:30. Ruby had practically written it on the backs of her eyeballs and was part to blame for why she’d been too wired to sleep in the first place. 

“I’m missing-” Cinder interrupted. “-A massimo black coffee, extra hot, preferably delivered on time by my PA who is currently…” There was a pause, and Ruby used it to furiously stuff one foot into the leg of her jeans. “..Fifteen minutes late for work.”

“I’m so, SO sorry Ms Fall I’ll be right there, I thought-” 

“You were not hired to think. And leave that garish plaid shirt at home.” Cinder said, and hung up the phone before Ruby could get in another word. 

-

Once she'd torn everything out of her drawers in search of something that WASN'T check plaid, Ruby sprinted to the bus stop one sunflower floral shirt later. She'd blown some of her precious final pennies on a ride into the Vale business district, and made sure to pick up a massimo americano- extra hot- along the way. 

Ruby rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She hadn't even considered getting herself anything, not that she could afford to, and it didn't help that the aroma of precious dark nectar was right under her nose the entire way. 

Only just hired, and already the end of the month couldn't come fast enough. 

"Thanks Junior!" Ruby called over her shoulder, sprinting across the marble foyer of the Argus House lobby and barrelling through the security gates that had been opened ahead of her. Maybe he knew she was coming, but it was more likely to be pity when tapping in Adel employees 2 minutes away from losing their jobs was without a doubt a frequency.  
Did Cinder call everyone into work this early? Oddly, there was no one else in the elevator with Ruby, though even the absence of stopping at every floor still didn't make the trip up feel like it was going any faster. 

It dawned on Ruby as she pushed open the glass doors of Adel and walked into the reception, that she didn't actually know where Cinder's office was, assuming she HAD an office to speak of. She'd have asked at reception, or asked anyone really.. Had the place not been entirely deserted.

A mouse could have stirred a sound; It was so unnervingly quiet. 

"Helloooo?" Ruby called out as she pushed through the glass doors into the office suites to the sound of her own footsteps, silently praying that mornings this early weren't in frequency.

None of the lights were on save for one in the back of the office, and Ruby realized she could hear distant chatter carrying smoothly in the air. It was only when she reached what was undoubtedly Cinders office that the glass-theme clicked. Every wall in Adel was entirely transparent, and Ruby could foresee a future filled with bumps on the head if she wasn't careful. 

Her room was no different, and to no surprise it provided the most stunning view overlooking downtown Vale just as the morning sun pushed above the horizon. 

Cinder herself stood behind her desk as made-up as the day Ruby first bumped into her. There was a softer tinge of rouge on her lips in place of the harsh burgundy worn the day before, not that Ruby knew anything about makeup except that she was sure Cinder looked good wearing any color. 

"I'm fully aware of the bad press surrounding the issue, I do read the papers." Cinder said, scroll pressed to her ear, sounding almost bored. 

Ruby gingerly pushed the glass door and allowed it to quietly swing closed behind her. Cinder hadn't looked to acknowledge her presence, flipping through a photo-filled binder splayed across a very simplistic mahogany desk that looked oddly out of place against Adel’s modern decor. 

In front of her were stacks of books, a laptop, and a picture frame Ruby couldn't see from this angle. and as she stepped closer she noticed chunks of wood were chipped from the desk on Cinder’s side in haphazard criss-crosses. Ruby paled a little, trying her best not to look uncomfortable and failing miserably, so she occupied herself with details around the room; On one wall, statuesque trophies and plaques were monumentalized in a beautiful glass cabinet alongside what appeared to be an extremely old model of camera Ruby was sure she’d seen once in a book. 

“So use your imagination, Ciel. Find a way to mitigate it.” Cinder’s voice dropped into a low murmur. Her scroll closing and landing on the table immediately drew Ruby’s attention back, watching as the woman’s hand immediately went to thread through the white at her temple. 

Ruby sucked in a breath, realization slapping her in the face with a wet fish; Cinder did that with her hair when she was displeased or aggravated which as far as Ruby had witnessed was her perpetual state of being. Cinder’s personal assistant would without a doubt see a lot of that.

“Good Morning!” Ruby chirped. She’d been spent the last 12 hours convincing herself that Cinder Fall was only a human being like everybody else, nothing to be scared of. Right? 

“Did you enjoy your coffee, Red?”

Ruby’s brow screwed together, confused, until she remembered the hot beverage in her hand and rushed forward to place it on Cinder’s desk. 

“Oh no- that’s yours. I-I didn’t-”

The woman didn’t look up, instead her tongue touched on the pad of her thumb to skip through the binder pages, nail hovering over large circles and highlighted paragraphs of text. 

“Save us both the trouble and just say yes.” Cinder muttered without looking up, reaching blindly for a pen to scribble a note on the inner pages. 

“Um… Yes?”

“Good. Because I would prefer to believe that you chose to stop and enjoy a cup of coffee on your way here than the possibility that you slept in.”

Ruby’s mouth gaped, flapping open and closed helplessly. “I-I’m sorry, Miss Lavender said-”

“Please don’t bore me with your incessant excuses girl. My assistant works when I work, and finishes when I finish.” Throwing over the binder cover, Cinder looked up to regard her presence for the first time. “Gods, what is that.” 

Ruby was still tripping over herself when Cinder’s eyes crawled from her face, down her front and back again with a level of disgust that suggested she had just ruined her entire day. Ruby’s cheeks blazed when she realized it was the sunflower-floral shirt Cinder was referring to. 

“You uh...said no check so I-”

“I said no such thing.” Cinder interrupted coldly. “All you’ve done is trade one garish for another.” 

It was true, Cinder hadn't explicitly said 'no plaid' but that was what she meant surely? Wouldn't anyone else have thought the same? Ruby felt impossibly more self conscious than before and fidgeted with the end of her shirt. As if it wasn't hard enough standing in proximity to a woman who, by all accounts, was stunningly beautiful in just about every context, she was also pointedly berating Ruby's state of dress. 

"Oh, uh.. Sorry, Miss Fall I'll try to-" 

"Call me that again and I'll make sure your time here is brief."

Ruby's entire face turned the color of beetroot, hot embarrassment burning her face without a grasp on exactly why statement was making her tingle. She tried to apologize for the ten-hundredth time but the woman sensed it coming and jumped in: "Cinder will do."

Ruby wondered whether she should try introducing herself again since the two of them had impressively managed to get off on every possible wrong foot, but Ruby had a sneaking suspicion the woman hadn't mis-remembered her name as 'Red'. It was probably for the best to just accept it for the time being she thought glumly. 

A light 'thunk!' brought her back to earth to see that, from what Ruby presumed was a desk drawer, Cinder had produced a small white box. She'd levelled it across her desk within Ruby’s reach before turning back to her work, voice stretching in a languid, disinterested drawl. 

"I expect my PA to take all of my calls, run my errands, as well as manage my bookings with both internally and with vendors. Where I go, when I go, and how I get there are your responsibility. I shouldn’t need to tell you that if you miss a call or miss an appointment, you jeopardize an entire months-worth of work. And one more thing." 

Cinder granted Ruby a brief glance that felt like a once over before saying, "Unless Remnant itself is coming apart, I'm not here." 

Errands? What was a vendor? Who was supposed to be calling her, and how was that even supposed to work? Did that mean the front desk would be her station? Ruby’s brain was already overloading on deciphering what any of Cinder meant while asking the least amount of questions possible, but she didn't speak, didn't dare to and chose to nod instead, looking at the small white box in front of her. 

"I expect it to be switched on at all times. You can leave." And with no desire to continue the conversation Cinder turned back to her work without so much as a polite look, her hand on the table, flipping her pen between long fingers. 

At least she'd been nice enough to phrase it as if Ruby had a choice.

With the box in hand, Ruby drifted out of the glass office like she was on air, quickly realizing between the buzzing nerves in her ears that Cinder Fall might not actually fall under the charter of ‘human' in this case. 

-

"Holy shit." Coco was keeling over, arms circling around her midsection to hold in a dry laugh. 

When Ruby had wandered aimlessly back into the offices she'd been so focused on using Cinders hieroglyphic instructions to figure out what she should be doing next that she hadn't noticed Adel employees trickling in. She earned some funny looks, predominantly from the women which she noticed were in the majority here. Thankfully, Coco Adel herself spotted the shell-shocked look on her face from all the way across the room before she died with nerves. 

"I'll be honest kid." Coco started, dabbing a tear from the corner of her eye. "With the mood she was in yesterday, I thought Cinder might have had you for a snack." Her jest was a tease, but the glee in her warm chocolate eyes wasn't unfriendly and it put Ruby's nerves at ease to know that someone here didn't take Cinder entirely as seriously as she took herself. 

"She's a pain in the ass but don't get me wrong, she knows what she’s doing." Coco looked over her shoulder with a resigned smile, prompting Ruby to follow her lead through the glass office, pointing out important faces in their stride; "Flynt, Neon my PA. Oh- that's Fox, he's one of our photographers. And Yatsu over there is a studio technician, can reach the top shelf of anything too."

While Ruby tried to absorb names and faces like a sponge she almost didn’t notice Coco leading her out of the office and back into the foyer. A flight of stairs later and through a set of double doors Ruby found herself on the 6th floor where Adel's cafeteria encompassed the entire work space directly beneath the main office. 

Ruby slapped her arms around her waist when the smell of breakfast and coffee had her stomach grumble loudly. The sound reached Coco’s ears, and her eyebrows hit her hairline when Ruby smiled meekly, embarrassed.

"I skipped breakfast."

When they took a seat at a table that offered a scrawling view of Vale, Ruby did her best to show at least a little restraint, but she could only be held accountable for so much when pancakes were on the menu. Thankfully Coco looked far more impressed by the gargantuan stack between them than disgusted.

“You sure can put it away.” The brunette chuckled, throwing her sunglasses atop her head. Ruby, with her cheeks puffed out with pancake, mumbled an apology before managing to swallow without choking. 

“Sorry- It’s been so long since I-” ‘Ate’ was what her brain defaulted to before she caught herself. “Since I had pancakes. Thanks for bringing me down here by the way; It’s so cool that you guys have a whole cafeteria to yourselves.”

“I had a feeling you hadn’t been told, that goes for a lot of what we do here at Adel.” Coco whispered when she leaned on the table towards Ruby, winking playfully. Ruby genuinely almost choked on some pancake that time, and Coco exploded into a fit of giggles. “Yea, thought so. Sure photography is a pretty important part but it’s only a slice of the pie.” 

Snatching up a spare knife Coco reached across the table, cutting into Ruby’s final pancake, dissecting a small triangle from the whole. “We design and prototype clothes for fashion, it takes up a pretty big chunk of the creative process.” The pancake was separated again into one whole half, and the other half into two, the latter of which Coco pushed to one side of the plate. “This part of the process is my forte and, well, mine on paper too, if you care about the nitty gritty of it. And this part…” She pointed to the whole half. “Directive, so production, branding and the entire editorial process: That belongs to Cinder.”

Ruby’s eye’s had expanded to the size of her plate while Coco made a pie chart out of her breakfast, but more questions immediately wormed out from her answers. "But yesterday, in the studio, Miss Fall- I mean- Cinder, she-" 

"Was all over my photoshoot like a bad smell? Yea, When your business partner has three doctorates that apply directly to this industry and owns 70% of Adel as an investor it gives her right to review.. Well, everything." Coco seemed nonplussed, like she'd made her bed with facts that only skewed Ruby's expression more, though it did explain at least a few things, such as her name embellished beneath every single photograph in the magazine, but definitely opened up a few more questions. 

"If it's OK to say, this stuff sounds kind of.. I dunno, sensitive? Why -" 

"Why am I breaking down the hierarchy when you've been in the door for 5 minutes? “ Coco finished for her, shrugging with a lazy smile."Part of having your name as the company is letting you know that I will always be 100% transparent. Trust is a two-way street squirt, and you've gotta know you can rely on me too," 

She punctuated with a jab to Ruby's shoulder, and though it made her feel a heck of a lot better to know the owner herself wasn't the kind of person to leave the employees under her dead in the water, Ruby must have looked a bit worried still since Coco continued:

"Don't over-think it." she said, and tapped the side of her head. "Just keep it in mind. Nice job yesterday by the way, whatever you said to Cinder put her in a heck of a better mood; long enough to let me do my job at least." 

A better mood? Ruby distinctly remembered being accused of stalking-which in hindsight was definitely justified- but she wouldn't have said it'd made Cinder anything resembling happy. If Coco said it was so however, then Ruby was more than willing to accept a small win, so instead of questioning it she just nodded. Ruby hoovered up what remained of her breakfast and tried not to look like and uncultured caveman in the process. Maybe early mornings wouldn't be so bad after all. 

"Hey, got that portfolio handy? You had a couple of styles in there I think would work great with a short column I was gonna run by Cinder." They'd left the cafeteria, walking up the stairwell back to the main office when Coco piped up as if it was exceedingly important. "And where's that cute little camera you had?"

Ruby blinked. Huh? "Am I…going to be taking pictures?" She tried to keep the hope out of her voice, skimming over the directionless list of responsibilities Cinder had bestowed upon her, but not one had any mention of actually taking photographs. 

"I'd like to think so-" Coco stopped walking just as they'd reached Adel's glass doors, eyes narrowed into a glare of skepticism. She didn't know why, but somehow Ruby understood that that look wasn't meant for her. "That.. is what you were told, right?”

They stared at each other for a few moments, all the while Ruby was doing her best to search for what to say. After a moment she cleared her throat. “Maybe I missed-”

"You're ringing." Coco said. 

“Huh?”

She pointed to the white box Cinder had gifted her just before, and sure enough a muffled noise was shrilling impatiently from within. With a terrified squeak Ruby scrambled with the box to find a way to open it while Coco continued on through the glass doors. “We’ll talk later, gird your weave in the meantime, kid!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm fashionably late (Unlike Ruby here) 
> 
> Hello! I hope you enjoyed, please R&R, I love to hear thoughts and stuff. Also I actually roadmapped a fic for the first time and am mid-write in later chapters (Oh boy) so i intend to see this through. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :')


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At least Ruby wasn't the only one suffering from high-strung tension in the workplace.. Though maybe it wasn't for quite the same reason as everybody else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoying the fic so far? Well here's the playlist!
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1PUzcjG4goJplejdi7rKND?si=e3GamXRoTsyAt2xo2Eklqw

_‘Hey honey, calling.. Again. You know, It’s great you got a job, but y'know dad's are prone to worry when their daughters don’t answer their messages, so, I guess what I'm trying to say is- yea- call me!’_

_‘Hey Ruby, it’s Blake. Another comic from your subscription arrived today. You might want to stop by and pick them up, the pile is getting bigger. Hope you’re doing OK, it would be great to see you soon.’_

_'Hey Rubes, can you ask Weiss NOT to call me looking for you? She does know you haven't lived at home for 4 years, right?"_

_‘Why are you so impossible to get a hold of recently?! 6:30pm at Tucksons like we agreed. And try not to be late.’ _

It wasn’t that Ruby was ignoring her second Scroll on purpose, but the moment she found a blissful second to herself after getting home at night she’d remember the dishes, the laundry and the neglected mound of garbage bags that judging by the smell alone, was definitely festering some sort of deadly culture. And when all that was said and done with, chores done and showered, something resembling food would happen, swiftly followed by the best part of the day: Sleep.

There was something to be said for the people that worked within an industry that was fast-moving and ever-changing. To Ruby, the concept of clothes were pretty simple, so she had no idea that they could 'evolve' right under her nose. What she'd learned almost right away was that this evolutionary turnover could shift every single week, and when it did, so did the contents of Cinder's bloated calendar. 

"Everyone likes to think they know what they want." Cinder had said during what was supposed to be Ruby’s lunch break.

Yet another sandwich sacrificed to the gods of fashion, but she hadn't minded much the first time...or the second, fifth, ninth. If it meant she could keep busy instead of sitting by herself, Ruby was happy to accept her role as a clothes horse while the disgruntled woman sifted through racks of what had been dubbed 'Last Season'. 

Recalling the moment a dress smacked Ruby hard enough that it wrapped twice around her face like some over-elaborate turban, it became pretty clear why she'd been having trouble paying attention over the past few weeks, because while Ruby vowed to absorb every word and instruction like a sponge it was often in how Cinder spoke rather than what that would completely lose the girl; her voice was intimate, as if her a thick plume of smoke ebbed through the air around Ruby in a comfortable lull. 

"When actually-" Cinder continued "-what they end up with is a wardrobe of tat inspiring each and every purchase thereafter, and the remedy for this is far less simple because quite frankly-" 

When Ruby sobered and wriggled her head above the ever-growing stack of clothes, it was to a sharp amber gaze giving her a scrutinising once-over.

"People only know what they want when it's handed to them on a silver platter." 

She couldn’t say she’d ever thought of clothes or photography like that; manufacturing a perfect shot with the sole purpose to sell some prancy dress, or sinking thousands of lien into those fancy Atlesian hardlight cameras just to have it do all the work for you. There was no room for those little spontaneous moments that Ruby loved to freeze in time: None of those weird airbrushed aftertouches, just raw film preserving every honest, human blemish. It made her miss her little Polaroid even more. 

The next day, Ruby stood awkwardly in Adel's scrupulously professional boardroom as members of the management team clucked around one-another like panicked hens, pouring over mug and body shots of models thrown haphazardly around the table. 

Short minutes later the glass door to the room swung open so hard that it rattled against the stopper, and Ruby jumped about ten feet into the air alongside everyone else, watching while they scrambled to find their seats. Cinder herself must have been either oblivious, or just used to it, because when she strode purposefully to the head of the table with Coco in tow, she didn't grant a dime to the surrounding chaos. 

"In what world would you consider putting a publication in the hands of a child even remotely a good idea?” Cinder asked over her shoulder. “Photography will get the numbers it needs, and they will be professionals, Coco." 

"But we need talent, not one-off ' professionals' outsourcing the same shots to ten different designers.” Coco nipped back. “Does 'spirit fingers' ring a bell?"

Soundproof glass or not, Cinder and Coco's colossal argument from earlier that morning could be heard wherever they went, wild gestures and accusational fingers spilling out of Cinders room and into every corner of the office. 

Ruby liked that Coco was level-headed, and though she’d exclusively subject Ruby to little teasing she was always willing to lend a wise word in a crisis- of which there had been plenty. So to see her something other than cool and focused, something had to be seriously irking her. 

Cinder, as expected, rose to it no more than the tone of her voice did. Coco- not so much, which made having the two women occupy the same airspace felt about as safe as stepping into a lion cage wearing a meat dress. Neither seemed to want to stop for air, and they'd been at it for hours. When they’d finally decided to call a time out long enough to take a seat, it should have been a relief. Except…

Ruby’s eye couldn’t help flickering over to her boss, watching as she drew pale lips into a tight line.

When you were faced with the monumental task of pleasing Cinder Fall there was nothing worse than trying to do that when she was in a foul mood. Nerves were swimming around the room, and with her hands already sweaty around her pen and notepad, it definitely wasn't helping Ruby’s own. 

"Interesting." Cinder announced blandly, flipping gingerly through the stack of binders sitting before her like they were infected.

From where Ruby was standing in the corner of the room she could see a sliver of exposed skin at the back of Cinders neck, drawing neatly from the point of her dangling earring all the way down to the curve of her narrow shoulder. The room suddenly tensed when her hand rose to cradle and stretch that exposed area. 

Instead, Ruby’s mouth went weirdly dry. 

"Oh Awesome!" A voice at the bottom of the table pitched sharply. Ruby was surprised it didn't crack every single glass wall in the office. "Well, we sorted through hundreds of gross candidates and put forward the ones that were the most-" 

"Generic, Neon?" Cinder interrupted without looking up.

Uh oh. Ruby sunk behind her notepad and tried to disappear for a moment while the entire room fizzed.

Neon-Coco's Assistant-didn't have that luxury, and without missing a beat Cinder tossed the binder across the table before flicking through the one underneath, grimacing, just to throw it atop the first almost immediately.

The silence that followed was gripping. Ruby couldn't see from Cinder's back, but judging by the uncontrollable, nervous vibration from Neon's faunus tail and the terrified tremble in her smile, it was obvious she was trying to hold Cinders thoroughly unimpressed stare even if the color in her face drained a little more with every passing second. Even Coco, sitting with her glasses over her nose and a neutral expression chose not to intervene, but Ruby could summarise that she had her own reasons. 

"I don't understand." The woman said softly to the room. "I've given each of you the extra time needed to be as meticulous as possible, and this-" She gestured to the binders "-is what you've come up with? Did anyone bring a brain to work this morning?" 

No response. In reality, it was probably better that way. 

"Red." Cinder said acidly, snatching a random photograph from one of the folders, holding over her shoulder without looking. Ruby jumped on the spot at the sound of not-her-name, staring, and then Cinder asked: "Share your thoughts on this model."

Out of the corner of her eye Ruby could see Neon balk. Ok. Cinder was asking for her opinion. She'd never shown any interest in what Ruby thought before but, sure, no big deal right?

"Uh.. She's.." Generic? Ruby didn't want to say that, not really. Flawless bronze skin, pale hair that looked effortlessly wild, and the model’s eyes were so beautifully viridescent that she was sure to turn heads wherever she went. "She's a really pretty...person."

"A Pretty Person. " Cinder repeated. "The kind of response I'd expect from a girl with less experience working for Adel than a paperclip. Not from a company asset that has been with us long enough to know full well where our standards lay. Now, unless somebody can rescue this embarrassment here and now, then I thank you all for wasting both my time and yours. You can go." 

Ruby left the office first ahead of anybody else, and while Cinder and Coco lingered to exchange a few final words at a resolute volume, Ruby waved shyly at a very pale, practically twitching Neon Katt.

"Hey." Ruby shuffled across with a shy, apologetic smile. "So that was pretty intense.. You ok?" 

"Oh I'm crazy awesome, Red. How is it up Cinder's bleached ass? Nice and warm? Do they have those cocktails up there with the cute little umbrellas? Because Oh. My. God, do I need a drink!" That definitely was not a happy laugh, that was the opposite of happy, so Ruby decided that if she pretended that she hadn't understood, maybe they could skip that altogether. 

"Soooo, I've noticed Cinder paying attention to a lot of model agencies lately, and when she likes something she does this funny thing with her mouth- that's not important- but I'm pretty sure I remember who she noted down so if needed help-" 

"Aren't you like, the fourth girl Cinder hired this year?" Neon interrupted with a cruel little smile. "Oh my god are you even old enough to have a job? Excuse me." And just like that she nudged her way past, not so subtly pushing Ruby with her shoulder. 

Ruby paused. The fourth? If they weren't really a fit then Ruby would have understood but.. Velvet was one of those four, and as it turned out was a bit of an academic genius. 

Out of the board room Ruby saw Coco and Cinder exchange a heated, though thankfully silent glance before parting ways. Palms still a little clammy, Ruby carefully pulled out the grossly expensive scroll she'd been given on her first day, following behind as Cinder stormed back to her office. 

"Obtuse Faunus nonsense-" 

"I rebooked the model review-" 

They blurted at exactly the same time, only that didn't stop from Cinder snapping around, glaring hotly as if she'd been interrupted. Ruby smiled apologetically, trying to ignore the warmth rising to her cheeks. "Sorry, um.. You were saying?" 

"Rebook for Friday, it can't wait. " 

Cinder didn't elaborate on the initial comment, but it hadn't escaped Ruby.

Truthfully she hadn't meant to eavesdrop on scroll conversations Cinder had been having with their partners in Atlas, or bank the odd mutter she'd made about the 'inconveniences' of Faunus employees. Managing everything in Cinders day-to-day made things like that impossible to miss. 

Ruby shifted on the spot uncomfortably. She didn't want to think about how it must have made Velvet feel. 

"Neon seemed pretty upset." Ruby said quietly. 

"Yes, well-" Cinder began curtly, clearing her throat. "- not surprising when her selection could upset the blind. Unfortunately, that includes one of our photographers. If Coco insists on having room for everyone in this company then I draw the line at tired, paunchy-looking models."

Guilt panged around Ruby's chest. What Cinder said in the boardroom- it should have been obvious, she should have spotted it at the time. Maybe said something. Neon's reaction to Ruby after the meeting suddenly felt entirely justified. 

"You have a problem, Red." Cinder stated as-matter-of-factly, and Ruby snapped up to find she was being stared at inquisitively from across the room. Did her face really give her away so easily? 

"It's just," Ruby began nervously, feet shuffling. "Sometimes we can say a thing, and we think it's ok for everyone but actually, for one person, it's..not."

Cinder's eyes widened, molten amber flaring. "Excuse me?" 

"W-what if we said, uh.. Worker? Or Employee? Maybe not, y'know.. Asset." Ruby winced while Cinder stared at her like she had just committed arson. "Just a suggestion!" She lamely tacked on at the end, noting that Cinders nails hadn't been dug into the surface of her desk like that a moment ago.

Before Ruby had the chance to splutter any further, Cinder leant heavily on her hands, shoulders dipped like an animal with it's hackles rising.

"How...attentive of you, Red." She said, lips quirking enough that the slant of her smile was more a bare of teeth. "Quite the eye for detail." 

Ruby couldn't move. There was an odd pounding inside her ears throbbing in tune to her heartbeat. She let out a quiet, careful exhale she had no idea she'd been holding, for some reason finding it increasingly hard to hold Cinder's eye when it was on her so exclusively; Just the two of them, confined in a space together, and memories of warm jasmine and the fresh smell of the expensive leather seats in Cinder's car suddenly flooded back. 

Ruby wondered: what did Cinder do with those Polaroids? Did she keep them?

"Uh-" 

"Maybe if you held your tongue for long enough, you’ll confirm tomorrow's board meeting with our Atlas offices at 8:45am, absolutely no later. Get me ten satchels from Seiben Klein in the office by Wednesday, tell him I want bashful not dopey. Then bring me my coffee." 

Cinder rang off blandly, but that suited Ruby just fine, clinging to her instructions like a lifeline while fumbling over her work scroll, fingers keying out a list so fast that her fingers started to hurt. 

"Coffee.. Seeban… Kline.. And sorry w-what kind satchels did you-" Cinder was already circling back around to her laptop, shooing Ruby towards the door with both hands. 

"Go bore someone else with your questions, darling. Oh, and I want my dry cleaning picked up. Drop it off at my apartment at 6:30 sharp."

6:30? Ruby gave pause, an alarm was going off somewhere in the back of her head.. On no. Weiss. She had coffee with Weiss. 

“Actually..um.. So-” She started with a nervous laugh. “I have this little.. Silly.. thing with my friend at the same time and I promised her because i’ve kind of been.. too busy to respond to messages or see her. Or see anyone, really ‘cos i’m always working now and she’d get really mad if I- maybe, um- I could drop it off a little earlier?”

Cinder blinked. “I’m sorry Red, it sounds like you're saying you're unable to do your job. Is that what you are telling me right now? That you can’t perform a task as simple as delivering some dry cleaning on time?” 

Ruby’s smile dropped faster than a tonne of bricks. “N-No! No- I mean- Yes I can.” She backtracked immediately. “It’s just- we’ve been so busy and I haven’t had a chance to-”

“Oh.” Cinder’s tone was pointed, hand drawing over her laptop to close the lid. “I see. You have better things to do.” 

The hairs on the back of Ruby's neck bristled on themselves as if Cinder had just sapped every degree of warmth from the room to fuel her hotly-lidded glare. Ruby didn't feel cold though, in fact, the clothes on her skin suddenly felt stifling. 

Back straightening, Cinder drew the tips of manicured nails across each chip and groove carved out of the surface of her desk, her heels clicking like a steady heartbeat until they carried her back to Ruby's side. 

“Of course not.” Ruby insisted feebly. "I-I don't have- I mean- I thought it would be okay to.." 

Weiss was going to scream bloody murder to the hills and back- and yet when faced with this terrifying woman it felt like a small price to pay in comparison; Ruby had managed to find the only other person in the world that she absolutely could not afford to displease, so whatever she was about to say was long lost on a lead tongue. 

The importance of Cinder's good graces were just as sacrilegious as the extra hot black coffee delivered to her desk exactly twice a day, Ruby had learned that pretty quickly: what Cinder thought mattered to everyone, and in this weird, complex machine that was fancy clothes and expensive handbags, if Cinder decided she didn't approve of the color of your socks it was considered career suicide. 

It didn't help that Cinder would practically glide around exacting her judgement like it was her Gods given purpose, no less in heels that pushed her well above the eyes of most. Standing so close to her now, height wasn't only the difference between them that was startling; it was the difference between her...and everybody else. 

Ruby watched the edge of her lips quirk, staring down her nose for a quiet, inquisitive moment while the girl prayed for her knees to stop shaking. 

“Full of thoughts and opinions today, aren’t we?” Cinder asked curiously. 

Ruby’s hands were slippery, trying to find the right words to piece together instead of her mouth flapping uselessly, all while mild bemusement leaked into Cinder’s expression.

"Just when I think you can't surprise me any more, you manage to both impress and disappoint me in the space of 60 seconds." The older woman commented idly, lifting a hand, drawing the wrinkled, un-ironed lapel of Ruby's shirt between her forefinger and thumb. "Also, I'd hesitate to call this an improvement when it's just one grade of hideous above.. What was it, daffodils?" 

OK, she needed a hot second to unpack all of...whatever had just happened, because what in the... 

Cinder Fall didn't compliment, she didn't tell you if you were doing a good job (even if Ruby thought it wouldn't hurt to hear a little praise every now and then) you performed your tasks and prayed the minefield was scarce. 

To avoid even a little of the usual scrutiny she'd even made a conscious sort-of effort to pick out a black and red rose-patterned shirt that, for reasons unbeknownst to Ruby, Cinder was taking a great amount of distasteful interest in with her hands.. But that didn't have to mean anything. 

"Haa. S-sunflowers." Ruby stammered. 

Cinder's breath was warm and steady on her cheeks, melting the atoms in Ruby's brain into potato mash, and desperate to do anything except gawk she pushed out a choked, obnoxious laugh that had been hiding somewhere in her lungs. 

"I-it was sunflowers." She blurted. 

"Mm." Cinder hummed thoughtfully. "I despise sunflowers." 

Ruby felt the other side of her collar being pulled straight. She would have looked.. Had her eyes not been so busy drinking in Cinder's features one by one, from the displeased upturn of her perfect nude lips, to the slight cant of her head highlighting the sharp, but incredibly feminine curve of her jaw. 

Ruby wondered where such high, regal-looking features could have come from; The matching slope of her cheeks and eyes hinted at touches of Mistralian, but the trained poise she carried herself with was the same kind she saw in Weiss: regimental, Atlesian. Yet the touch of accent she could hear wrapping over certain syllables was neither, and by far the hardest to place. 

Ruby was dying to ask if it meant sating this weird urge to know something- anything about the woman at all. 

"I don't plan to find out how long it would take before your sloppy state of dress harms my credibility." Cinder said dryly. 

Her hands drifted lower. Ruby froze when she felt those long, deliberate fingers fiddle along the cheap plastic buttons at her neck, and one by one, began to pull them loose. It was OK. Cinder worked with clothes. It was normal. It was her job. No big deal, certainly no need for her to feel like she was about to die of hot embarrassment. 

The other distinct possibility here was that Cinder was trying to kill her; that she drank the blood of her assistants and claimed they'd disappeared under mysterious circumstances. How else did she keep those careful lines on her face balanced perfectly between beauty and grace?

"I didn't think anyone could do that." Ruby's eyes widened, realizing how that must have sounded. She tried to force a casual smile, but the high quirk of Cinder's brow was enough to tell her it looked anything but. 

The buttons- undone just beyond her sternum- were correctly reassembled with clinical purpose, one at her throat left loose; secretly Ruby was thankful for it since she'd been holding her breath the entire time; Gods, if anything Cinder Fall really was beautiful. 

"Better." Cinder stated, spreading her hands out towards Ruby's shoulders, fixing the fabric taught. At least, that's probably what she was doing. Ruby was too busy just standing still and trying to not vibrate to notice. 

"If you continue to perpetuate these garish patterns then I insist you at least iron them."

The amber in Cinder’s eyes looked as though they were sparking with bright, firelight embers whenever Ruby had been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse without being noticed. But there was no such thing as a sneaky glance when you were pinned directly beneath them, and Ruby could have sworn those pinpricks of coal were searching around her insides, dragging out each and every secret hidden beneath her skin. 

"Dry cleaning, Red?" 

Ruby snapped out of her reverie as Cinder returned to her desk, and tried not to think about how warm her palms had felt through her shirt. 

“6:30. At your address” Ruby heard herself say faintly. “Got it.” 

"Good." Cinder replied. "You can go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Still alive! Plot stuff is hard. This one went through quite a few iterations because as my missus pointed out in the first draft: 'You wrote her to be too racist. Racism isn't hot. And Cinder is.' - So with that it took a few tries to get the blurred line between 'ignorant bastard' and 'outright Faunus hater.'
> 
> "But Bampot" you ask "Why is that important?" Plot, my friend. :''') 
> 
> In other news, I wonder if Ruby has figured out what it is about Cinder that has her so fixated? 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, love to hear your thoughts and please R&R!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever been so engrossed that you can't see the wood for the trees?

Really, Ruby should have known better than to believe Coco and Cinder would keep the peace: The two women managed a stalemate for all of an hour following the disastrous model review, and when Coco barrelled through the glass door with an itch for round 2 Ruby figured it best not to pry when Cinder had her clear her entire schedule for the day, muttering something about 'researching business needs'. 

Shoulder to shoulder, they rigidly departed the office at 3pm sharp, which, with both CEO's absent, left behind an unnervingly calm atmosphere, and Ruby watched in disbelief as punishing stilettos were abandoned for concealed flats produced from handbags, drawers. Dustbins. Coco could always be trusted to turn a blind eye in leniency, but Cinder was not above firing everybody in the room that dared to circumvent Adel’s designer dress code with a shoe she’d sooner use as a doorstop

Ruby’s nerves were trained to level at a hundred between these walls, and the only thing that could possibly be worse was doing nothing at all: There was no way she was about to squander this opportunity, so sealing seal herself in Cinder's office where she’d could safely work Ruby poured over Cinder’s very elite list of modelling agencies, knowing that there wasn’t a soul remaining in Adel that would dare to venture in and disturb her.

While the cathartic sound of the printer whirred to life in the background, Ruby mused to herself that the only thing ever to line the dustbin in here were discarded paper cups from Tucksons. It was funny: For all the things Cinder was obsessively particular of, Ruby hadn’t once heard a complaint over the coffee. 

Glancing over the side of the woman’s sizable desk, the two she’d delivered over the course of the morning were discarded companions, each cup bearing the print of Cinders lipstick. The shade belonged swathing within glass, as rich and deep as wine it was the one she wore most (when she wasn’t wearing anything at all). Something akin to curiosity spurred Ruby to reach in, picking one cup out of the basket to closely inspect the perfect shape of a cupid’s bow. 

Admittedly, It’d been easier for Ruby to be braver around the woman when they’d been strangers, giving into Cinder’s irresistible unknown where she’d made the memory of sitting in the confines of her car seem scandalous on its own. 

Ruby exhaled sharply, silver darting around quickly to ensure her privacy, and then, without daring to dwell on why, she lifted the cup to press her own mouth to the lipstick.. 

She suddenly, desperately wanted to recall the twisted satisfaction in the older woman’s sharp smile when she’d first taken that business card, and then how the hot, heavy weight of her hands had permeated her dishevelled shirt. The midday sunlight amplified through the glass walls of her office enriching the smell of expensive shampoo and jasmine tinting her wrists, heated and heavy in the air. Ruby sighed softly, trying to sear every little detail into her memory. 

Behind her the printer beeped impatiently, prompting Ruby to drop the cup back into the bin right away as if she’d just woken up. She hastily gathered the 20-something page job, every model that had elicited Cinder’s telling lip purse over the last few weeks hard documented.

17:30 rolled around, and when she'd finally found an opportunity to reply to Weiss Ruby was admittedly just as doubtful of herself as the heiress was when she rescheduled their coffee 30 minutes early. Even Ruby could admit she wasn't exactly great for being on time. Maybe the past few months working under Cinders thumb had drilled in a lesson or two about timekeeping. 

17:45. A few of the girls still loitered, not really doing anything resembling work, and Fox was behind the curtains on the other side of the office, setting up for a shoot in the morning. Surely no one would notice if she just.. Slipped away a little early. It was for Cinder after all. Ruby didn't bother giving doubt a chance to fester- she stuffed her belongings in her backpack, and slipping behind the front desk- Neon’s Desk- Ruby slid the stack of profiles and contacts not-so-subtly beneath the Faunus’s keyboard before she legged-it. 

The dry cleaner was thankfully only 5 minutes away at pace, though that didn't help when the very uptight-looking woman behind the counter took one look at Ruby before deciding to hold "Miss Cinder Fall's 3 piece Sieban Klein" hostage. Her face morphed into a tightly-furled pucker when Ruby impatiently flashed her Adel employee badge as a last resort, trying not to snatch the hanger when it was slowly, reluctantly passed across the counter. 

At 17:59, suit bag slung over her shoulder, Ruby barrelled through the door to Tucksons in a hot flurry, bent over and heaving to catch her breath. Standing behind the counter as always, the tall, bulky Faunus in question took one look at Ruby, and cracked a pitying smile. 

"Large Americano extra-hot?" He asked in the usual thick Vacuo baritone that Ruby was accustomed to hearing every morning and afternoon, though a 3rd visit usually spelled a crisis in the office, and was entirely responsible for the sympathetic look on his face. 

"Just a small mocha, please." Ruby said when she caught her breath. Chocolate and coffee were the only two things that would cut it. He looked almost relieved for her. "Ooooh and one of those chocolate twizzle stick-things, please! The one with the sprinkles." 

The air next to Ruby breezed cold on her arm, a flurry of white in her peripheral emitting a high-pitched, displeased squeak; "And a tall skinny decaf frappe too. On her."

-

“Ruby Rose. On time?” Weiss teased, smiling lightly into her straw. After they'd collected their drinks the duo made their way across to the usual booth, Ruby taking the venture more carefully with Cinder’s dry cleaning, chocolate twizzle and a boiling mocha held in a precarious balance. “I’d ask if you were an imposter if that stick of diabetes wasn’t so typical. Seriously how can you even eat those?”

“Ha ha. First of all, because they’re delicious, and second, for your information, Princess, I found a job.” Ruby announced, thumb pointing proudly to her chest, but a second later caught herself with a small sigh. “Also, still working right now. Kind of. I’m sorry I can’t stay long.” She could already feel her scroll burning in her pocket, hoping, praying that Cinder would find mercy enough not to call in the next fifteen minutes. The job part was impossible to hide if Weiss had already spoken to Yang, but maybe her employer was something she could fluff. She hadn’t forgotten hers nor Blake’s strong reaction to the idea of working for Cinder Fall, and Ruby had to admit, her reputation more than just preceded itself. 

Weiss blinked, staring for a short moment with white brows high on her forehead. Ruby watched her expression dip for a fraction of a moment before she offered a small “Oh.” Clearing her throat, and then, “Well, congratulations Ruby, Even if it has made it impossible for anybody to contact you with your...” Weiss’ entire body canted to the side, staring at the suit bag in question. 

“Oh! Uh, dry-dry cleaning!” Ruby blurted. 

“You do people’s dry cleaning?” Weiss asked, looking increasingly suspicious. 

Ruby blew a raspberry so obnoxious that she felt a little part of her die inside, definitely not helping when she couldn’t quite meet the Heiress eye for eye. Weiss had always been terrifyingly good at telling when Ruby was fibbing. She really had to sell this. 

“No, silly. I deliver them! All day, all… All night!” Parting with a laugh she hoped didn’t sound as nervous as she felt, Ruby scratched behind her head. “So.. Yea, super busy.” She continued, quickly redirecting: “That voicemail sounded important? What’s going on?” OK, so it absolutely didn’t. Weiss’ theatrics could make headline news over a stubbed toe so Ruby expected the Heiress to launch into something nonsensical. 

Concerningly, Weiss just sighed. “I thought you should know I’m returning to Atlas for a little while. Father insists I'm present at negotiations for some new business venture of his. Don’t ask, the details are boring.”

Oh.

Ruby bit her tongue. Hard.

The only thing Weiss hated more than her father was his company. When he’d demand to whisk her back to the land above the clouds to pay witness to his grandiose ego-stroking, Ruby knew it could be done just as easily from the SDC offices here in Vale. She frowned, instantly feeling a horrible clench of guilt. How long had Weiss been trying to contact her?

“When will you be back?” She asked quietly, but was answered with a shrug. 

“Any longer than a month and you may see a murder in the headlines. In any case, I thought you should know. I am not looking forward to the six-hour difference, It takes me forever to adjust.” Weiss said, absentmindedly stirring her frappe with the straw. “It’s just..” She sighed, “You know how hard it is to pull Blake out of one of THOSE melancholy holeS and when Yang isn’t acting like she’s allergic to cats she’s practically a ghost.”

“I know” Ruby said quietly. “I wish they’d talk too. But they’ll come around, i’m sure of it. They just need time to work out...stuff.” She hoped the weak smile offered was enough to convince Weiss otherwise. Thankfully the gesture was returned. 

“Just- Make sure you pay a little more attention to your Scroll?”

“Is this the Ice Queen, Miss Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company telling me she’ll miss her friends?” Ruby jested lightly from behind her mug, just to have the hot, chocolaty splash of karma on receiving a firm boot from beneath the table. 

“Yes. Well-” Weiss scoffed “I’d be neglecting my responsibilities if I didn’t at least check up on you before I go. Considering how busy you are with..” Weiss’ gaze drifted, narrowing on the suit bag Ruby had propped next to her like a second body. “Wait, is that Sieban Klein?”

“No.” Ruby answered too quickly, freezing when Weiss stared, cold blue entirely unbelieving. “I mean- Who?” 

-

Stealing a tight, but not unreciprocated embrace from the Heiress, Weiss and Ruby parted with a hesitation that signified unspoken reluctance, but the weight on Ruby’s back had been getting heavier with each passing minute. 

Wrangling with her guilt wasn’t something she’d expected to be doing, and it made her wonder; Was this even a taste of what it was like to prioritise obligations over the people you love? Ruby’s were hardly ever to more than just Cinder, and were certainly not to a worldwide corporation that people’s livelihoods were dependent upon.

Tipsy evenings spent in their shared dorm at Beacon had been both infrequent, and honest, with Weiss spilling every lowly, underhanded Schnee secret her father had orchestrated and buried over the years, and her disgust at his monopolisation of a race of people too poor and oppressed to refuse the dangerous labor he offered in SDC mines. 

_‘One day i’ll take it all back’_ Weiss would always end the night with, more often than not sprawled haphazardly across her lap while Ruby nursed the last of her half-dozen sodas.  
_‘My Grandfather’s Company, my name, my dreams. Just you wait.’_

And then what would follow was the not-so-subtle envy of Ruby’s sister, Yang, her freedom to tour Remnant, chasing thrills with a burning eagerness that shone hotter than the sun. Of course that was until she’d found something she loved even more than the freedom and adventure of being a Huntress: Until Blake. 

Ruby’s fond smile dipped low at the memory. The first monster she’d lost to wasn't one made of armored bone and sharp teeth, and although Yang had managed to rescue Blake from a lifetime of ruthless manipulation, the wedge it had driven between them was only equal to the arm that Yang had lost in the altercation. Be it Blakes guilt, Yang’s rocky adjustment or both, they hadn’t spoken since.

Time was on their side though. Unlike Ruby at present. 

Foot caught on the door, Ruby hopped unceremoniously out of the taxi with a hurried ‘thank you’, turning to face an estate in one of North Vale’s more prestigious areas. Townhouses and apartments that dotted the area among fountains of autumn red put her own little boxed home to shame. She wasn’t even sure what these people could possibly need all the space for anyhow. 

Ruby scaled a mountain of stone steps to what she prayed was the right block of flats, buzzing through two security gates and 1 concierge, a hunched, elderly man that was kind enough to direct her to the correct door which in anticipation of her arrival, already lay ajar. 

She reached out timidly, buckling up the courage to push the door open enough so that she could step inside. 

“Hello? Cinder?” Her voice didn’t even echo, absorbed by the dark, moody corridor walls. When there was no response Ruby entered on her tiptoes, shutting the door behind her with a careful ‘Click!’. Considering her boss often liked to embellish and indulge in an extra bit of flare, it shouldn’t have been surprised that Cinder was the type to live in the lap of luxury. 

But that didn’t stop Ruby’s eyes from bulging wide when she entered the main living area.

Bright, Sculpturesque lights made up of dazzling glass shapes cast only soft shadows among the dark, richly colored furniture that artistically occupied the room. The walls, lined with wooden mahogany filled the room with warmth as Ruby stepped over the threshold in awe. 

It was the kind of luxury so typical of Cinder that it seemed almost fictional until she was standing right in it the thick of it. It was like a movie set, or a showroom, thick rugs and bountiful pillows meticulously placed on the sofa and recliners matched the palette of the rest of the room, but what caught Ruby's attention most was how the living area offered the most spectacular view of Vale through a single, mirrorless pane of glass as transparent as the surface of a freshwater lake.

The dry cleaning hoisted over her shoulder was instantly forgotten about as Ruby buzzed into the room excitedly, hurrying to the window, and like being inside a glass maze she reached cautiously to feel out where the invisible surface began, as if there were nothing there at all to separate Ruby from a ten story plunge. 

“That glass-” Came a cool voice that, for some reason, she was stupid enough not to expect. “-Represents hundreds of days of work by the most talented glassworkers on Remnant. A carefully engineered infusion of molten silica and Fire Dust, and your first reaction is to put your filthy fingers all over it.” 

Ruby’s hand snapped back to her side, whipping around, and the panic Cinder’s voice could rouse in her so easily plummeted into the bottom of her stomach; The woman in question didn’t pay Ruby a dime of attention, which was just as well since it allowed her to freely gape at the woman crossing into the room.

Her dark tumble of hair, usually without a strand out of place was instead pulled up into a high, messy ponytail, giving Ruby a gluttonously undisturbed look at the way the woman’s neck curved down into the dip meeting her shoulders. A sheen dusted the taught surface of her skin, highlighting the slight layer of sinewy muscle cording across her back, shoulders, and then down the length of her bare arms. There was no debate whether the combination of tight black clinging to the woman’s body was designer with the white band of some recognized brand cinched around her flat tummy and the narrow temple of her hips. 

In the distant part of Ruby’s brain that hadn’t stalled right then and there, she wondered if Cinder had at one time graced the front of a camera lense, rather than behind it because...gods give her strength her mouth was dry. Maybe for a woman so meticulously dressed during the day it was simply just a shock to see her in something that wasn’t clean cut or shamelessly plunging. Yea, that had to be it.

A finger-snap bounced from wall-to-wall, jerking Ruby back into the present. The woman’s face looked sour. “Is there a brain in there? Am I talking to a wall?”

“Oh! Hey! Sorry was uh...a million miles away.”

“Evidently. I take it that's the reason you’re late?” Cinder nipped. Beyond the incredibly functional-looking suede sitee and obsidian table separating them, the woman was posed back against the family-sized stone island centered in her kitchen, looking increasingly impatient between sips from the glass of water in her hand. “My dry cleaning?”

Handling the bag with all the care of a newborn child Ruby barrelled towards her in a panicked flurry, mentally noting that her scroll was correct: She hadn't actually been late, but of course Cinder was the type of person to count the minute spent in the elevator. 

“Ah, Ah-” Cinder shooed without looking. “In the bedroom.”

Ruby nodded wordlessly, remembering this time to hold her smile until she was out of eye-shot so that in the bedroom she could release a staggered breath of relief. Her head tossed from side to side to shake herself into sobriety because, what the heck? What was wrong with her?

So Cinder was mindful of her health. Looking the way she did, how could she not be? Forty-something and she ran a business like a cheetah. Or maybe something with bigger claws- 

No. No, nope. Ruby punished her bottom lip by biting down on it, hurriedly exiling that image to some cold, dark crevice of her brain before it had the chance to fully form.

She had to stop doing that. 

Right now, the most important task in her young adult life was delivering this woman’s dry cleaning to its final destination. The undeniable relief of settling the bag on the meticulously flat surface of the woman’s bed made for a little less anxiety, though Ruby couldn't help noticing how the tucked bed sheets were folded to a clean, crisp angle: like everything she'd seen in this movie-star apartment It looked as though the linen never been disturbed, and knowing how adverse Cinder was to the idea of taking a break Ruby genuinely wondered if the woman ever stopped long enough to sleep, or if that was just some inconvenience meant for mere mortals. 

She also realized, rather belatedly, that a simple yoga mat laying unfurled next to the window, the one Cinder had undoubtedly just been using. All those hours spent on her feet, pushed high in what was often a stiletto heel and hunched over her desk in the Adel offices, pulling a stretch suddenly didn’t sound unreasonable considering the only time Cinder deigned to take a seat was to overstate her disappointment in the boardroom. 

Without thinking Ruby whipped out her scroll to begin a new search. Maybe a heat pack would work, or one of those chiropractor people- but that was expensive. There was always the company card…

She made a note, or five, because flooding her brain with work was the only thing between the straight and narrow, and realizing that even though the room was styled to perfection, the thick, close smell of what was so undoubtedly Cinder was heavy in the air, damn near enough suffocating-

“It’s rather concerning to know you can’t find your way around a room with one door.” Cinder called. 

Light on her feet Ruby shuffled rigidly into Cinder’s main living area, fidgeting on the spot just before the transition from thick carpet to kitchen tile when she saw that, to no one's surprise, the woman was nose-deep into the screen of a laptop, wearing a familiar look that drifted somewhere between concentration and displeasure. 

She really did live and breathe work, and though Ruby didn’t envy having to keep up the woman’s gruelling schedule, she couldn't help but admire it. Cinder was the one making the big, corporate decisions, not delivering the dry cleaning. 

Cinder's lips lay slightly parted, save for a thoughtful purse when the drum of long nails against the keyboard gave pause. Absent of instruction, Ruby tried not to stare while she stood dutifully still until Cinder finished, like an obedient canine waiting for the whistle of its master... until the silence started to become uncomfortable.

She so desperately wanted to say something- anything that didn’t sound as stupid or as nervous as she felt. Before departing the office that afternoon they’d left one another on an odd note, Cinder’s thoroughly unimpressed reaction to Ruby’s very-to-the-point suggestion on how to better address a Faunus employee had made something of a lasting impression on her. 

In fact, she hadn’t stopped thinking about it.

_‘Just when I think you can't surprise me anymore, you manage to both impress and disappoint me in the space of 60 seconds.’ _

Ruby held herself with arms around her waist, as if in letting go she might allow the nervous, squirming knots in her stomach to overflow. 

_‘I despise sunflowers.’ _

Those long fingers had been mechanical in fixing the buttons on her shirt, undoing, redoing, as if it were an action she’d performed thousands of times before and yet, for all the effort she was exerting Ruby couldn't stop her face from flushing at the memory. 

She needed to do something. Say anything. Fill the silence with something other than the danger of her own thoughts. 

Ruby blinked. She blinked again. 

“Sooo,” She gestured towards the window, hoping she didn't sound as desperate as she felt. “Silicone glass huh? That's.. cool!” 

"Silica," Cinder correct without looking up,"-is about as revolutionary as sliced bread, dear."

Ruby's cheeks pinkened. "O-oh, I thought you just said-" 

"Did you reschedule the review like I asked?" 

Oh thank the brothers almighty: work. Ruby immediately scrambled back into her pocket for her scroll. "U-um, yea you had a call with Poochy at the same time about featuring for their final quarters accessory line, a-and a meeting with marketing about cover, uh, layouts afterwords, should I-" 

"Move Pucci to Thursday morning. Tell that boy Marrow not to insult me with his seasonal tat. I wouldn't use them as paper weights." Cinder drawled, adding "And do spell the names of our partner brands correctly, Red. The irony escapes no one in this case."

Ruby felt her cheeks burn, but she didn't dare ask. ".. No Christmassy...stuff.. Poochy but spell it right.. Friday." Ruby muttered. "Got it. So uh.. How was your afternoon?" 

Every attempt Ruby had made at holding a conversation with the woman managed to end as lamely as the first. After spending months working directly with the CEO Ruby still had no progress to show beyond being spoken down to from a tower of strict, corporate professionalism- 

"Awful." Cinder deadpanned. "I have an entirely uncooperative business partner refusing to listen to reason, and an illiterate assistant accusing me of racial intolerance." 

Accused her of… Wait, hold on- "O-oh. No no- I didn't mean to suggest- I just-" 

"You very much meant it, darling. Did they teach you this tremendous lack of tact at...where was it, Signal?.” 

Ruby's hands broke out in a sweat, furiously squirming because she knew that incredulous tone of voice, the one Neon was subjected to earlier that day and that no one wanted to be on the receiving end of.

“I-It was Beacon, actually. But-really, I didn't mean to offend-”

“I also know why you’re here in the first place, Red. You think this opportunity, that I've so generously given you, is a stepping stone to a still-better one. And while I’m sure Professor Ozpin has conditioned his students into climbing the proverbial ladder with his arrogant, cryptic nonsense, you’d be well-advised knowing that people’s true intentions rarely escape me.” Cinder practically purred with a dry, amused haught that drew all of Ruby’s attention to the slight incline of the woman's lips. It was so rare to see her smile that Ruby could count each occurence on a single hand, but only one had ever looked as snide as that, and it'd been directed at her. 

Ruby would never dream of speaking so unkindly of people the way Cinder did so effortlessly. Professor Ozpin was admittedly an odd enigma of a man, but had a certain insight and perspective that other people lacked, and Ruby had found herself gravitating towards him in moments of doubt during her time at Beacon. Maybe he and Cinder were old acquaintances, though Ruby found her skin prickling heatedly all the same. 

“Unfortunately,” Cinder continued distastefully, steering Ruby’s attention, “Coco believes you are being...underutilized. And in this case she’s being particularly stubborn about it.” 

Ruby glanced up from the spot on the floor she'd been uncomfortably staring at, Cinder’s words piquing her attention fully.

A quick double press on the keyboard and Cinder locked her machine, strolling around past Ruby where even on the bare soles of her feet, meeting the woman eye for eye meant craning her neck back. She vanished into the bedroom Ruby had just vacated, hand waving listlessly across to a sizable bag Ruby had neglected to notice on her way 

“On the coffee table.”

And she was gone, leaving Ruby's confused stare to settle on the white, unmarked bag that was now making a large statement in the room. 

Ruby drifted next to the obsidian table, gingerly parting the tied strings and peeling the flaps aside like she expected a rattlesnake to pounce out of it. Inside there was a similarly unmarked box in black, padded among a fuss of extra wrapping paper: it was solid plastic with a dappled kevlar surface, and two metal release clips on either side. 

Cinder had since breezed back into the room unnoticed by Ruby, continuing blandly, "Coco is adamant we include some idealistic article in the coming Fall issue, something Faunus-targeted about 'inclusiveness for all' or some such nonsense. We are here to deliver excellence, not braid each other daisy crowns on the prairie." 

Clips pulled loose, the lid popped open by itself, and Ruby wasn’t- couldn’t possibly have been expected to keep face. Immediately the girl whirled around. 

Silver struck with gold, Cinder standing behind her enveloped in a robe of black satin, waiting with her scroll in hand and an inclined brow.

"This- it’s a camera. You’re giving me a camera?” Ruby asked, voice hoarse with disbelief. Terrifying, foreboding, excited disbelief.

“Your responsibilities as my assistant take precedence, of course.” Cinder replied boredly, waving the gift aside like it wasn’t the most expensive instant film camera available. “I’ve forwarded Coco’s original proposition to your Scroll, no doubt she’ll wish to go over finer details in the morning.”

There was no one behind her preparing to yank the expensive rug out from beneath her feet. There was no sound of fanfare, nor was Cinder peeling in hysterics. When Ruby pulled the camera free from the box, it gave a certain weight that didn’t just imply expense, but age too. She knew this model because the research into film was worth studying at Beacon. It certainly wasn’t new, but it was notoriously limited enough to be sought after by any professional. 

Ruby cradled it like she’d been handed some holy chalice, inspecting it with awe. “How… How did you even get this? These are-”

“Not in circulation anymore. Yes, I'm quite aware Red.” Where there was usually impassivity, a bead of annoyance slipped into Cinder’s tone. “Needless pet project or not, I wont have you contributing to any page of Adel with some assembly line-built throwaway. I expect you to treat it with respect.”

“Of course Miss F-” Ruby’s mouth snapped shut at the slip. Be it Cinder’s effortlessly authoritative tone or not, Ruby was so used to hearing those reprimands from tutors at Beacon that the surname fell from her lips naturally. “Cinder. I don’t really know what… what to say.”

“Don’t make me regret agreeing to this. Should you squander the opportunity I've given you, you’ll know how quickly I can have you replaced." If there were any dissatisfaction to be had, it didn’t rise to the older woman’s expression, melted away alongside the rebuke. 

Ruby could only nod stiffly, and packed the camera carefully into to it’s box as Cinder returned to her laptop. With no further lashings on the end of the woman’s tongue Ruby found it safe to gravitate towards the door, when the weighty pull of the bag on her arm made her give pause. 

“Hey, uh…” Cinder didn’t turn, not that she often did, but Ruby knew her to be acutely aware of the going ons around her. Drawing in a deep, calming breath, Ruby continued, “You were right about before: I wasn't being honest. I-I did mean what I said.” 

Anybody with an inkling of self preservation would have said she was losing her mind, to stop tempting fate and that what she should be saying is ‘Thank you’ Instead, she prompted Cinder’s slow turn from her kitchen, the giveaway twitches on her brow and lips completely even and untelling. 

An ounce of doubt manifested itself in the weakness she was feeling in her knees, enough that Ruby had to remind herself why the situation that morning hadn't sat well in her stomach, that it wasn't just about Cinders subtle distaste towards Faunus. 

Her second breath deeper than the first, Ruby continued despite the obvious tremble in her voice. 

“Y-You do that; scaring and intimidating people when you don't like what they have to say or like who they are… or what they are.

But see, I don't think I'd be doing a very good job if I only...said what you want to hear, you know? I wanna tell you when you’re wrong. Even if you sometimes make me wanna run a million miles away from you ”

Cinder was statuesquely still, her expression entirely unreadable where the girl dreaded what thoughts were swirling behind those fire-bright eyes. Ruby could feel her fight or flight senses clutching her by the throat.

“What time is it, Red?” The woman asked gently, catching Ruby completely off-guard.

“Uh.. Three minutes just after seven?” She managed to say.

“Fortunate, for you. Had we still been on the clock I imagine this conversation would have gone quite differently.” A slight cant of her head sent now-freed waves tumbling over one shoulder. Ruby's stomach squirmed with a touch of fear, brows meeting worriedly in the middle while Cinder stared at her thoughtfully, unabashed and without guile, as if she’d been presented with a complex puzzle. 

Cinder's authority wasn't the sort that could be found brandished on the razors-edge of a blade, it was prefaced by countenance so unnerving that Ruby could feel sensitive goose flesh rising on her skin. 

"I.. Uh.." Why, why was it so hard to just form some words? Across the room, Cinder didn't bother to wait; she slid away from her laptop, barefoot sinking into the plush carpet in what Ruby could only describe as a prowl. The sheer satin of her robe licked around pale shins when she stalked to occupy the space right in front of her, lazy and unhurried. 

She couldn't see, couldn't hear or smell anything beyond the woman before her; Low notes of jasmine and vanilla were obvious even from where she stood, and it made Ruby want to toss all cogent thought out of the window. 

"You're not afraid of me, Red." Cinder finally said. Smooth and heady, the words dribbled to the base of Ruby's spine like a trickle of warmed honey, heat blooming to every nerve ending in her body until her face could help radiating with heat. "Fear of your role? It's expectations? Of failure? Perhaps. But not of me." 

The parted V of fabric at Cinders chest was disturbed when the woman slipped her hands into the pockets of her robe, and Ruby suddenly, violently imagined how it would feel to breathe in deep against that smooth, pale morsel of exposed skin.

"Regardless.." Cinder hummed, just in time for Ruby's gaze to rise, taking in the slight tousle of her hair, the gleam of interest that sparked her eyes bright, the curve of her lips - "I won't allow you to speak to me like that again. Do you understand?" 

With the simple demand bearing no room for argument, it took everything Ruby had to steel herself, taking a slow, calming breath. "Y-yes." She said softly. “I understand."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THOUGHT THIS FIC DIED ON IT'S ARSE DID YOU. SURPRISE. (I'm so sorry, it's been a busy year.) 
> 
> Please please please gimmie a wee C for your thoughts, and a wee K if you liked. 
> 
> I wonder if Ruby has figured it out yet.  
I wonder if she's been beaten to the punch.


End file.
